Until Your Dying Breath- The 100th Hunger Games (RP OCT)
by pochapal
Summary: "As a reminder to the rebels that the Capitol can regain power unexpectedly, each tribute shall be taken from their district in secret, nobody knowing who the tributes are until the games begin." It's been five years since the Capitol was reinstated, and after recollecting citizen data once more, the Hunger Games have started up once more- starting with the fourth Quarter Quell.
1. Chapter 1

Alanna Pyre:

The elevator doors opened, revealing the massive gymnasium that she would spend the next three days in, preparing her survival skills for the Games. She cautiously walked over to where the rest of the tributes were, her district partner anxiously following. She listened intently to the instructions given by the head trainer; keep the equipment at their respective stations; follow any advice their mentors had given, and don't fight with the other tributes; there'll be plenty of time for that in the arena. The tributes were dismissed, and began to fill the stations. Alanna looked around, desperately looking for a vacant station. She glanced to the other side of the room, and saw the projectile weapons station; completely empty.

She quickly walked over to it, and took inventory of the station. There was an abundance of throwing knives; several boxes full; some shurikens, which looked like stars, and a single blowgun, loaded with darts. Instinctively, Alanna grabbed two knives, one in each hand, her small fingers naturally wrapping themselves around the handles. She walked over to the other side of the station, where several pristine training dummies were set up, and let the first knife fly from her hand. It hit the dummy right in the throat. Pleased with herself, she launched the next knife, hitting the dummy square on the shoulder. Good. After all, she had to fend for herself in her district, and the knife was her only friend. But knives were always a popular choice for tributes to flock to in the bloodbath, and going for one straight off the bat would result in certain death. She needed another weapon to use, a less common one.

Alanna quickly spotted another weapon amongst the many knives; the throwing stars. She picked one up, and prepared to throw it when a sharp pain coursed throughout her hand. She let out a small yelp in pain, and dropped the star to the floor, one point bloodstained. She turned her hand over and saw a neat gash across her palm. She looked closer. It wasn't deep and should be healed by the time the Games began. Sighing in relief, she went back to finding a backup weapon, but could only find knives, knives, and more knives. Frustrated, she slammed her good hand on the nearby desk, causing a small box to fall over. She bent over, to pick it up, and gasped at the contents of the box.

Inside was a small blowgun, with at least twenty darts. She pulled both the gun and the small bag containing the darts, and loaded it. She sauntered over to the dummies, and fired. It landed exactly on the heart of the dummy, fake blood pouring out. She shot at the next dummy. Right in the heart again. She fired at the remaining three dummies, with the exact same results. This seemed to come naturally to her. She could survive, and potentially win, with these two weapons. But her mentors words relayed in her head. He had told her to find three weapons to work with. She already had two ranged weapons, but a melee weapon wouldn't be unwelcome either. She placed the blowgun back, and moved on to another station; trap making.

As soon as she arrived, Alanna found exactly what she wanted her last weapon to be; the rope. It had so many different functions; she could use it to strangle or hang someone; she could use it as a whip, and she could use it to tie herself to trees or other unstable surfaces. She got to work laying a trap, and grabbed a spare dummy, throwing it onto the rope. The trap wasted no time in stringing the dummy by the neck, hanging it. The trainer congratulated her on a successful trap, but Alanna just offered a hostile glare. This trainer was partly responsible for sending her here, expecting her to kill others for the fun of it. She bent down to untie the rope when a cry of fear pierced the room. All eyes turned to face Caleb, Alanna's district partner, as he cowered in fear, the boy from 5 towering over him, holding a massive sword. Even though she swore not to have anything to do with her partner, Alanna couldn't help but feel concerned for Caleb. The sword began to come down, about to kill him, when every Peacekeeper in the room tackled the boy from 5 to the ground. Caleb scrambled up, and hastily retreated to the trap making station with Alanna.

"Look, I know you don't want anything to do with me, but did you see that? He was prepared to kill me before the Games have even started!" He said, wide eyed, fear plastered all over his face.

"I saw," Alanna replied, "And I think it'd be best if we avoid him." She finished untying her rope, the dummy slumping to the floor, lifeless.

Markus Lucian:

As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, he made a beeline straight to the weapons station. He grabbed two broadswords, the cold of the metal feeling right on his hands. He walked over to the dummies, and proceeded to swiftly tear them apart. Not so different from his parents, only less blood. Yes, he needed to see blood, to confirm he killed the dummies. He plowed his sword into the centre of the dummy, puncturing the blood bag. The perfect white fabric turned a deep red, the liquid pooling on the floor. Dead. Like a person. That easy. Markus' face contorted into a slight smile, barely visible, but there. Just stab twenty three people like that, and he would be the victor. His smile grew as he realised just how easy the Hunger Games were. He impaled the remaining dummies, and moved on. Both him and his district partner were told to find three weapons; one melee, one ranged, and one of their choice. Well, he had already found a melee weapon; now for a ranged one.

Markus crossed the room to the archery station, and picked up a crossbow. He positioned it in his hands, aiming at the dummy, and fired. It hit it right in the heart, blood flowing. Blood. Good. He continued to fire, decimating all the dummies at the station. So far he had destroyed thirteen dummies. More than half the required amount of things to kill in the arena. Easy. In fact, he could probably off the others by the first night. And set a record for fastest Games won. He lost himself in the fantasy, failing to notice that another had taken residence at the station.

He looked to see the boy from 6 standing there, holding a sword. A thought crept into Markus' head; why not start the Games early? He ripped the sword from the boy's hand, and pushed him to the floor, the sword posed to kill. How easy. But before he could kill, he was on the floor. Peacekeepers, many of them, piled on top of him. He took a glance at where his sword had fallen, his victim fleeing to the safety of his younger partner. A little girl, probably thirteen at the oldest. How delightfully simple it would be to kill her. An arrow to the head, a snap of the neck. The possibilities were endless. Suddenly, pain. In his head. A Peacekeeper had hit him. Overtaken by fury, Markus leapt to his feet, and grabbed the Peacekeeper in a headlock, his powerful muscles crushing the Peacekeeper's windpipe. He then proceeded to crush the windpipe, and the Peacekeeper slumped to the floor, dead. He let a wry smile show. No different than his mother, only less blood.

Before he could react, another Peacekeeper fired a dart at him. His vision blurred, and his senses became dull. He tried to walk, but his legs buckled, and he cave in, collapsing on the floor, crushing the corpse of the dead Peacekeeper.

The rest of the Peacekeepers grabbed the unconscious Markus, and brought him back to his floor, strapping him to the bed.

"Man this kid's screwed up." One Peacekeeper, a young woman with dark hair and skin dyed a shade of blue, said, opening the door.

"Yeah," another replied, "But this kid's got exactly what's required to win. I don't know about you, but I'm betting on him."


	2. Chapter 2

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna walked out of the dining room on the sixth floor of the training centre, Caleb pursuing her. She pressed one of the various buttons on the wall, and they slid open, revealing the elevator. They both stepped in, the doors closing. The elevator descended swiftly, and opened once more, having transported them to the training floor once again.

They both stepped out, and Alanna surveyed the various survival skills stations. Today she was going to gain some extra survival skills. First up on her list was disarming; an essential thing to have in the arena. She crossed the room, almost to the station, when Caleb put a hand on her shoulder.

"Um, if you don't mind, I'm going to go try the first aid station," he pointed to the station in question, currently vacant, "I figure I'll be more use in that area."

"Sure, go for it," Alanna replied, "You may actually save one of us with that knowledge." Caleb, looking more like a puppy that'd just been rewarded for sitting on command, was about to burst off, when they both heard a scream. Alanna looked behind her, and saw a figure flailing about in the pool; drowning.

"Look, Caleb. You go off now, I'll catch up with you later." She made a run for the pool, Caleb quickly following again.

"Hey, wait!"

Alanna made it to the edge of the pool, and could see the face of the poor drowning tribute; the girl from 12, April. Acting on impulse, she threw her arm into the water, grabbing April's hand, and pulled her up. April let out a loud exasperated gasp, before staring wide eyed at the duo before her.

"Thanks," She began, "You saved my life."

"Don't mention it," Alanna replied, wiping her wet hand on her shirt, "I don't like seeing innocent people die and knowing I could have helped."

"Wow, that's exactly how I think as well," April climbed out of the pool, coughing up some water, "You know, a person like you'd be great in the arena. So what do you say, allies?" She stuck her hand out, smiling slightly. Alanna stuck her own hand out in response, the two of them shaking hands, creating a bond that would be hard to break.

"Allies."

Alanna left April back at the pool, and finally reached the disarming station. As soon as she arrived, the instructor equipped themselves with a knife, and charged at her. Alanna ducked, barely avoiding the blade. She continued to lay down as the instructor charged once more. Just before the cold steel made contact with her throat, she threw her fist upwards, delivering a powerful uppercut into the instructor's chin, the knife clattering to the floor. She got up, and another instructer came towards her, this time holding a bow, fully loaded with arrows. Thinking on her feet, Alanna bent down, avoiding the first arrow, and grabbed the knife. She stood up, and launched the knife at the instructor. It hit right on the hand, a small stream of scarlet red dripping down, the bow also falling to the floor.

"Wow kid, you're good. Real good."

Alanna ignored the praise, and moved on. Next up was Mutt knowledge; she was already fairly skilled in agility and stealth naturally, so she decided to skip those two stations.

When she reached the station, she found several computers on desks, each showing the Capitol's seal. She sat down at one, and the screen changed to show an index of Muttations that were most likely to appear in this Game's arena, categorised by the type of environment that they've appeared in. The first she checked was the forest environment, and made a mental note of each Muttation that would be found wherever trees were to be found.

First up were the jabberjays; genetically altered birds that could perfectly replicate a person's voice. Alanna figured that they could be used as a diversion, to make someone think that an ally was in trouble. Next up were mockingjays; the offspring of jabberjays and mockingbirds. They could imitate tunes and rythyms, and could be used as a communication system. After that were small golden squirells that posessed the ability to glide, armed with razor sharp claws and teeth. And lastly was a small rodent that acted as an indicator; if it suddenly died, that meant that a disaster was approaching.

After going over the forest dwellers once more, Alanna moved on to aquatic Mutts. First on the list was a small crab, coloured a deep green. At first glance, it looked like a regular animal, just oddly coloured. Alanna looked again, and noticed another detail. They were covered in spines that would erupt with corrosive acid under stress. They also tended to gather in swarms. Next was a type of seagull, looking fairly normal, apart from the massive talons that wouldn't look out of place on a hawk. She moved on to the next Mutt, and taking in the information, let out a horrified gasp. It was a jellyfish, except that it had a set of eyes, and could maneuvre on land, latching onto their victims, injecting them with their paralysing venom. Alanna quickly changed to the next Mutt, and thankfully the category had changed as well.

Moving on to the urban Mutts, the final category, Alanna began to take in the details of the first Muttation. It was a living pile of tar, touching it would result in your skin melting off in an extremely horrific way. It could also encase you in its body, hardening, and suffocating you. Alanna quickly moved on to the next one, a deceptive Mutt that disguised itself as either a puppy or a kitten, but in reality was a ticking time bomb, ready to explode with the force of the Cornucopia landmines. Alanna moved on to the final Mutt in the database, and nearly screamed out loud upon seeing it. It was a large, hairless quadruped, with massive black claws on the end of each pink foot. A very fine coat of hair covered its neck, leading up to its head, the most horrific feature. All orifices were gone, except for a massive, gaping mouth, filled to the brim with row upon row of tiny sharp teeth. Alanna could already feel the bile rising from her stomach, and her breathing became laboured. This was the very same Mutt that ripped her older brother to pieces a couple of years ago in his Games. She ripped the plug from the socket, the computer losing power, and ran from the station, fighting back tears.

She made her way to the far corner of the room, and released a choked sob. No, no tears. It'll only make them pursue you as a weakling. Alanna swallowed back the tears, and made her way to the next station; edible plants and animals.

In the middle of the station was a massive book, filled with all kinds of plants and animals, with a brief description of which ones were safe, and which were poisonous. She opened it at the first section; berries. There were so many different types, she was overwhelmed at first, but soon found out which were worth remembering. Under the picture of each berry were the years that they appeared in. Alanna took note of those that appeared more than twenty times, and those exclusive to the first three Quarter Quells. Ones that stood out in her mind were nightlock; a pitch black berry that contained such a potent poison that the consumer would be dead before the berry even hit their stomach, and were known to contain medicinal balls on occasion, and a brightly coloured berry that, when eaten, would make the consumer hallucinate, their surroundings appearing to be their innermost fantasies.

The next section of the book was dedicated solely to various animals. The ones that Alanna deduced to be the most likely to appear in the Games were Grooslings, a type of bird that could be eaten both raw and cooked, mockingjays and jabberjays, both edible, and a type of lizard that was actually filled with tracker jacker venom. The rest of the book simply contained various ways to extract the toxins safely, but was in too much detail for Alanna to comprehend all at once.

She left the station, closing the book, and moved on to the last station for today; lock picking. It seemed out of place with the others, meaning that it probably held a secret to the arena's design. Curious, Alanna walked into the station, and found Caleb there, in the middle of undoing a locked door using a strip of wire.

"Hey Alanna." He looked up as he finished, the door swinging open. "What brings you here?"  
"Well, I think that this station may have something to do with the arena's layout."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She said, grabbing various lengths of wire and hairclips, and walked over to the locked doors and padlocks. She looked to see the instructor set a timer; ten minutes to unlock all five doors and padlocks. She started on the first door, and shoved the wire in, fumbling around until she found the tumbler. She pressed down harder, the door swinging open. Good, one down. She glanced at the timer. Eight minutes left. Next up was a padlock. She picked a small hairclip, and put it in, twisting and turning it until it latched open, and the clip fell out. Now that she had the hang of it, she flew through the remaining locks, with two minutes to spare. Satisfied, she stepped out of the station, and a bell rang out. Lunch.

Alanna met up with Caleb and April, and they began to munch down, until two figures approached them.

"Um, excuse me," The smaller one began, but trailed off, eyes wide with concern.

"What Caera's trying to say is, mind if we sit with you guys? Names Alluma, by the way." The other one finished, and the two joined them.

"Hey, I just had an idea!" April announced, smiling widely. "Why don't the five of us band together in the arena, we'll be like the Careers or something!"

"But without the training." Alanna replied ruefully, poking at some multicoloured bird with a fork.

"You're right. How's about we call ourselves the Anti-Careers! We'll have the same number of people, but we won't be hellbent on killing the others." Alluma added cheerfully. The five of them then began discussing their plans; to meet up in the south-eastern most part of the arena after the bloodbath, provided they survive.

Alanna watched as her allies began to tell each other stories from their districts. They could have all been great friends, she thought, if it weren't for the fact they were all planning some way to kill each other.

Markus Lucian:

He stood impatiently as the elevator doors opened, his district partner quickly running out of there, away from him. How easy she would be to kill. He strolled into the centre of the room, and took in each station, before deciding on the four that he'd study for the day. First up was hand-to-hand combat, a personal favourite.

He quickly approached the station, and the instructor glanced at him. Upon recognising the tribute that they'd be sparring with, their eyes widened, and they vanished behind a door. Markus stood there, clenching his fists, wondering what was taking them so long. He looked around the room, at the others. His eyes did linger on the girl with the bright red hair for a moment longer than usual; perhaps it was the bright colour standing out from the dullness of the room.

The door opened again, and out came the trainer, clad in full body armour. Markus sighed. This trainer must be weak if they needed a full set of armour just to exchange punches with a mere tribute. The trainer glanced, prepared to tackle Markus, but he was faster. He darted around the trainer, kicking them in the back of their knees, causing them to collapse on the floor, writhing in pain. He then leapt on top of the trainer, and delivered a forceful punch to their face. Judging by the cracking sound, he had just broken their nose. He let out a small chuckle as the instructor lost consciousness. Markus stood up, leaving his pathetic partner to lay on the floor. That was boring, to say the least, so he moved on to his next station.

As he reached the stealth station, the trainer just looked at him with stone cold eyes, but behind that mask was a strong fear. Markus crouched down, ready to run the laps. Three... Two... One... Go! He propelled himself forward, racing along the course, ducking as the first obstacle flew towards him. Next up was a hurdle. He leapt over that with ease, before turning to the final stretch; the assault course segment, lined with trainers holding bats and paddles. He slowed his pace slightly, the first trainer missing him entirely. He sped up again as the second one launched their bat at him. He caught it mid-swing, and threw it back, hitting the trainer in the face.

He came to a stop, and the main instructor congratulated him on setting a new time record. He stood there as his pulse returned to normal, and caught a glimpse of red. The red headed girl from before was standing at the agility course, anxious to start. He half listened as the instructor briefed her on the course, and joined her at the starting line. The countdown started again, and they were off, Markus quickly overtaking his partner. He leapt over the hurdles with ease, soon realising that this course was almost identical to the last one, and looked back to see her tripping on one, trying to catch her breath. He avoided the weapons once more, and made a perfect stop at the finish once more, the redhead just behind him. She caught up to him, and looked right at him, as if expecting praise or compliments. Instead, different words left Markus' mouth.

"You were pretty damn slow there." And without any warning, he began to laugh. A deep booming laugh that seemed to come from the furthest depths of him, haunting and mocking at the same time. The redhead glared at him, hurt written all over her face.

"Screw you." She spat, turning to leave. A smile crept across Markus' face. Time to toy with this one, to see if she'd be worth keeping alive for a while.

"Leaving already, Ginger?" She stopped dead in her tracks, and turned to face him. She marched right up to him, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. She drew her arm back, and punched him. Right on the arm. Pain throbbed through Markus' arm. Violence, this wasn't part of the plan. Blinded by sudden fury, he grabbed her by the collar of her training uniform, lifting her off the ground.

"Do you really want to start something?" He asked through gritted teeth. The redhead just stared at him coldly.

"Dunno, am I?"

He glared at her back, both of them staring at each other with intense fury, until the readhead pushed him away. A Peacekeeper, alerted by this conflict, approached them.

"Is there a problem here?" The redhead turned, and walked off, leaving Markus alone.

"Evidently not."

He moved on to the last station of the day; edible plants and animals. At the station, he found a half bored instructor, and a massive book on a desk. She looked up at him, then pointed to the book. He took the hint, and opened it. It was mostly what he already knew, but with the frequencies of each plant and animal's appearance. For instance, he found out that nightlock berries have been featured in sixty two of the arenas. Going over it all one last time, he closed the book, and stepped out, having completed today's list of things to do.

And as if on cue, a bell sounded out, signalling the end of training, and lunch. He walked over to an empty table, and began to eat. He smirked once more as he went over the past two days in his head. He was ready.


	3. Chapter 3

Markus paced the dining room one last time. Five minutes before the elevators would be unlocked. Everyone else was still asleep, but he didn't care. He just wanted to get down to the training centre, and sneak in some last minute training, perhaps kill another Peacekeeper. He chuckled at the memory; the strange gasping sound that came from their throat as their eyes glossed over. He bagan clenching his fists in anticipation of the day to come. Today was the private training sessions, the time where he could finally show his skills off to the head Gamemaker.

He took a look at the clock; it was time. He strode forward, slamming the door open, and darting for the elevator. He punched the button, and the shining silver door slid open. He stepped in, and the metallic door shut, a pinging sound ringing throughout the small enclosed space. He felt a change in the gravity as the elevator raced downwards, stopping with a thud, setting him off balance slightly.

Markus stepped out, and took in the early morning training centre. Half the lights were still off, and there were still some things left from the survival stations from yesterday. He noted a few stray bandages laying around here and there, and a small lamp hanging from the tree in the camouflage station, flickering every few seconds in the shadows of the unlit room. In the middle of the room, a few tables were laid out, obviously for the tributes to sit in. Markus crept into the shadows, sitting at a table. He began to observe his fingers; long and calloused, with a scar running across his right index finger after an accident with a knife a few years ago. How foolish he was back then. If the present day Markus ever met his previous self, he wouldn't hesitate to kill him instantly. Good thing time travel wasn't invented yet.

Suddenly, a deep noise resonated throughout the training room, and Markus looked up to see an elevator open, someone stepping out. Judging by the posture and hair, it was the redhead from yesterday. The one that he hadn't managed to fill with fear. A tricky one indeed. He heard a light clicking noise, and the shadow above him suddenly exploded; light rushing out of their glass prisons, filling every nook and cranny of the massive hall. The redhead looked in Markus' direction, and her face registered a look of surprise for just a moment. She hadn't been expecting him to be down there. Markus smirked. He stood up, and crossed the room, walking straight towards her stone cold glare.

"Didn't expect to see me here?" He grinned mockingly. "What is this? The great almighty redhead, scared of some big bad tribute?" Markus chuckled, until the redhead lifted her leg, delivering a powerful kick to his groin. He fell to the floor, unable to breathe, unable to do anything but feel pain.

"'Redhead' has a name, you know." The words dripped out of her mouth like poison on her tongue. "It's Emily."

Markus climbed back to his feet, the agonising pain subsiding.

"Well, Emily. Seems _someone_ has anger issues." Her expression hardened.

"Look, I didn't come here to pick a fight, I want to ask something." She hesitated, if only for a moment.

"I want us to be allies." The words sounded foreign on her tongue as her stare attempted to penetrate Markus' own glare, his dark eyes dancing with danger.

Allies. He hadn't planned on this. But this could be good. She could prove to be useful; she wasn't half bad looking, which would help them to receive sponsor gifts, and she could help him take out that large alliance of girls out quicker. And when she outlived her use, he would dispose of her. It would be a relatively painless death, of course, to show gratitude, but she would have to die.

"So what do you say?" Emily asked, looking up at Markus' monstrous stature, trying to read him.

"I don't see why not," He replied, staring coldly at her, "Who knows, you may actually be useful in the arena." She narrowed her eyes at him and crossed her arms.

"We'll just see . . . you went for the same abilities Gryff and I went for, so the real idea is whether or not YOU would be useful in the arena rather than being able to just senselessly murder everyone."

Gryff. Who was that again? Markus went through the last two days again, trying to remember. That's right, he was the arrogant boy from 1. A Career in the traditional sense; cocky, and brash. But there was something else there. A slight glint in his eyes that showed something much deeper and darker than just someone who thought of the Hunger Games as tossing a few spears, a swordfight with your district partner, then coming home the winner. Behind that cocky demeanor lurked a ravenous killer. Maybe this alliance would turn out to be a good thing after all.

Markus looked back at Emily, the corners of his mouth twitching ever so slightly.

"Well, if you haven't gotten it through your thick skull yet, the way to win this game is to have the ability to murder everyone in sight. And right now, whilst you're blabbing on at me, I could have killed you in at least two different methods." He flashed her a smile, completely false and flowing with malice. Part of him was enjoying this venom laced conversation a tad too much.

"Oooooooh, death threats," Emily rolled her eyes. "How scary..." her tone dripped with sarcasm. "There are other ways of survival rather than kill or BE killed. Knowing ways to get around while there are no tributes in sight would be great," she said with a smirk. "Hope I was right offering an alliance with you..." she mumbled darkly.

Markus turned to look behind him. Several tributes were emerging from the shining elevators, each wearing a different expression. Some scared, some confused, some happy, some bursting at the seams with confidence. He returned his attention to Emily, her green eyes following something just behind him.

"I can't exactly refuse your request." A faint ghost of a smile crept onto his face. "After all, you're the only person that's had the guts to actually speak to me, never mind mouthing me off."

Emily darkly smiled at him and shook her head. "What can I say, I have an eye for those with potential... And to be honest, you're not that frightening..."

Markus crossed his arms, and looked down, towering over her. "I don't know whether you're extremely brave or just stupid saying that. Try asking any of the other tributes in here; I guarantee that they'll be scared of me to some extent."

She chuckled a little. Yeah, she was probably stupid more than brave. At least she would have to be somewhat brave to let the psychopath of District Five join her little alliance that she had going on. "I definitely know for a fact the kid you almost slaughtered is terrified of you . . . not very nice," she shrugged. "But kind of funny." A sly smile crept on to her face, and she began to laugh. Her laugh was high and clear, with an edge of insanity to it, and contagious.

Markus' shoulders began to shake as he tried to hold it in, but he was soon howling too. He looked behind him between spasms of hilarity to see the boy in question staring at him quizically. The boy turned to his district partner, whispering something to her. Markus stopped laughing almost instantly when the girl stared at him; her icy blue eyes staring deep inside him, at some part that even he didn't dare explore. He felt violated, as if this girl suddenly knew his innermost secrets. There was something about this girl that worried him. Not only was she agile and quiet, as he had previously seen over the past two days, but she was more intelligent than she was letting in on. He had also seen the members of that massive alliance sort of gravitate to her, as if they wanted her to be the leader. She was obviously playing the manipulation game, but with whom and how still remained a mystery. If she made it out of the bloodbath alive, he'd have to keep a close eye on her.

"Hey, Gryff! I got the psycho to join us!" Emily suddenly blurted out, drawing the attention of a long haired boy. He sauntered up to the two of them, his swagger irritating Markus immensely for some unknown reason. This must be Gryffon.

"Awesome, Em." He stuck his hand out, palm facing Emily, and she stuck her hand out, the two palms connecting, making a clapping noise. This must be what they call a high five, Markus thought to himself, watching the two get pally with one another.

"So Markus," Gryffon looked him right in the eyes, "Welcome to the Cold Killer alliance. Name's Gryff, short for Gryffon, if you didn't already know." He stuck his hand out in a friendly gesture; a handshake.

"A pleasure." Markus groaned, rolling his eyes as the two shook hands, Gryff's grip somewhat rough.

Gryffon opened his mouth, as if to say more, but a loud voice boomed throughout the room, the sound resonating from a large speaker.

"Gryffon Sauntor, please make your way to the private training room. The Gamemakers are waiting." Gryffon took this new information in, and turned away from Markus.

"See you in the arena. We can finish our introductions there." He walked towards the towering double doors, each encrusted with a large assortment of various jewels done up in an extravagant pattern, making a squeaking noise as he scuffed his shoes on the shining buffed floor. He pushed open both doors, craned his head back for one last look, then vanished behind the fabulous walls. Markus and Emily both shared one last glance, then drifted away from one another, Emily making her way to the remains of the shelter building station, and Markus sitting on the edge of the drained pool.

He looked down at the white plastic bottom of the pool, a few stray puddles of water reflecting the lights, shimmering and shining, catching the entirity of the bright bulb in one small amount of water. It was a truly fascinating thing to look at. Markus could almost imagine a tribute falling into the clutches of the transparent abyss, opening itself up, swallowing the poor little child, completely extinguishing their life long hopes and dreams. How wonderful that would be to witness. Perhaps they'd scream, or call for their parents, or some other desperate deluded way for them to think they'd make it out alive, all whilst falling deeper and deeper into their suffocating aquatic grave.

"Nova, please make your way to the private training room. The Gamemakers are ready to see you now." The voice cut off his train of thought. Wait, how long was he imagining that delightful death for? Too long, by the looks of it. He stood up, and began to wander around the perimeter of the pristine training centre as the clock ticked on, until finally the message he had been waiting for.

"Markus Lucian, please make your way to the private training room," He was at the doors before the message could finish, and pushed them open with such force that several clusters of diamonds clattered to the floor. He glanced behind him, and saw Emily watching him blankly as the doors shut behind him.

Markus took in the hallway he was now in. Below him was a plush, rich, red carped with many intricate patterns interconnecting. On the walls hung seventy five different picture frames; past victors. Most of them he didn't recognise, but as he neared the end, two faces stood out the most. The girl on fire and the lover boy. Two teens that had managed to completely tear the Capitol down twenty five years ago, only to have the Capitol regain control a couple of years back, this Games being the first one since the Mockingjay rebellion. Personally, Markus couldn't care less about rebellion and humanity; all he cared about was spilling the blood of twenty three others. The automatic doors slid open, and he entered the private training room.

It was exactly the same as the main training room, only scaled down, with all the stations within twenty feet of one another, survival and weapons stations right next to one another. In the centre of the room was a raised platform, where the Gamemakers looked on. Most of them were rosy cheeked; drunk, but not so intoxicated they won't remember his performance. Perfect.

Wordlessly, he strode over to the shooting station, and arranged the twenty four moving dummies in a circle, facing outwards. Using the remote, he switched them on, and they sprang to life, running around the room at a fast pace. He picked up the crossbow off the floor, and eight arrows. He fired the first arrow. One dummy collapsed to the floor in a pool of fake blood. Followed by seven more in quick succession. He then grabbed a steel-edged sword, and swung at eight dummies, tearing them to shreds on the floor, their fabric sticking to his face. Finally, he launched himself at the eight remaining ones, choking them to death. With all of the dummies laying motionless, he flashed a grin at the Gamemakers, and walked out of the exit. He quickly moved through an identical hallway, and was met with an open elevator. He stepped in, and pressed the button marked '5'. The elevator closed, and shot up, opening at the dining room of his floor. He stepped out, and made his way to the dining table. He sat down, and thought about the performance he had just finished. That was fun, too much fun. And to think, only two days before he could do that for real.

"Alanna Pyre, the Gamemakers are ready to see you. Please make your way to the private training room." Alanna tensed up, her nerves suddenly going through the roof. Calm down, she told herself, you can do this.

"Hey Alanna," Alluma said, surveying the other tributes, "You alright?"

"Just fine." Alanna replied, and got up out of her seat. She crossed the polished floor swiftly, and opened one of the massive doors, avoiding a pile of gemstones sitting neatly on the red carpet. She walked down the long hall, noticing the pictures of past victors. Part of her was sickened by this, but she had no time to dwell on it.

She walked into the training room, and quickly discovered it was identical to the main room, only smaller, and with a raised platform for the drunken Gamemakers to watch her. First, she grabbed a beaten up looking training dummy, and placed it near the trap station. She then grabbed a length of rope, and set up a snare trap. She pushed the dummy into the trap, and it hung by its neck, dangling from the rope. She then grabbed a blowgun and darts from the adjacent station, and set up her aim. She fired all the darts in rapid succession, the venom coursing through the body of the dummy. Satisfied, she grabbed some throwing knives, prepared to perform some target practice. She was nearly there, when she slipped on a puddle of red liquid, the knife flying out of her hand, and through the weak spot in the barrier separating the Gamemakers from her. Cleanly slicing off one of the Gamemakers' ears. She watched, horrified, as it fell into the punch bowl, the drunken Gamemaker wailing hysterically. Panicking, she dropped her weapons, and fled the training room.

Great, now you've screwed up, big time, she thought as she ran along the hallway, and into the elevator. She pressed the button to take her to her floor, and the door shut. She noticed that the walls of the elevator were stained red. Probably fake blood from a training dummy, she thought. The door opened, and she burst into the dining room, Caleb standing there already.

"Hey Alanna, that was fast. What happened?"

"Oh, nothing really. Exept for the fact I cut a Gamemaker's EAR off!" Tears were pricking the corner of her eyes as she pushed him out of the way, and ran to her room, locking the door as she entered. She punched her bed as the tears streamed down her face. There was no way she was going to get a decent score now.

A knocking sound brought her out of her hysterics.

"Um, Alanna?" It was Caleb. Great, just when she was having an emotional breakdown. She got up, and opened the door, fighting more tears.

"Why are you upset? Don't you remember the Mockingjay? She nearly killed a Gamemaker, and look at the score they gave her! Don't worry, you'll be fine. I'm sure of it." His warm smile seemed to make her tears evaporate as she pulled him in for a hug.

"Remember this, Alanna; Don't give up hope. It's a great saying to live by, and it would do you some good to follow it." Hope. That's it. She wasn't out for the count just yet.

And she was planning to stay in the game until the very end.


	4. Chapter 4

Alanna's eyes gradually opened as the golden sunlight filtered into her room. She rubbed the last remains of sleep from her still tear stained eyes. She had done a lot of crying yesterday, now she could only hope it paid off. At first, she was concerned when she cut off the Gamemaker's ear, but they obviously didn't take that into account, giving her a measly one for a score. A sly grin crept onto her face, and vanished as soon as it had arrived. She put some clothes on, and slid open the silver door. She walked down the hallway, filled with various locked doors, all elevators that were once used in past Games, but weren't used this year as one of the twists of the Quarter Quell was to skip all the celebrations, and get straight to the killing. It seemed normal, but Alanna couldn't shake off the feeling that every action she did would affect her somewhere down the line. It was stupid, but it was persistent in everything that she did. Even during her private session, she felt as if some other entity was watching her. She turned the corner, and entered the main living area.

Caleb was sat at the massive mahogany table in the middle of the room, rolling an apple around in the hands, his eyes constantly flitting from one place to another. He was nervous, Alanna noted. But she needed to be more so; not even her own district partner could be trusted.

"H-hey Caleb." Alanna said in such an exaggerated stutter that sounded blatantly false to her, but Caleb seemed to be buying it.

"What's up?"

"Nothing," She let herself trail off for just a moment, allowing tears to form in her eyes, "Just scared, is all. Caleb, I think that I'm going to die in the bloodbath." He paused for a moment, not even breathing, then his facial features contorted into a frown.

"Don't say that, Alanna, it isn't true. I mean, you've managed to form the largest alliance just by being yourself, and you're one of the smartest people here," He quickly glanced around the room, "To be honest, I'm quite terrifed myself."

"Really? I wouldn't have known. You are quite good at masking your fear." Alanna offered a smile, grabbing a banana, slowly munching on it.

"Thanks. I gues it'll help me a lot in the arena."

Their conversation was cut short by a beeping noise. Alanna's eyes grew wide as her gaze slowly drifted to the glowing clock. It was time.

"Uh, Caleb. I think that beeping means that we have to go now. It's time for the games." She yelled over the high pitched cacophony of the clock. Caleb simply nodded in response, and he walked out of the room. Alanna followed him through the door, the sound of the time telling device becoming somewhat drowned out.

They both walked down the golden hallway slowly, wide eyed, holding each other's hand as they stepped into the glimmering elevator. Reluctantly, Alanna pressed the only available button, and they shot down at an unrealistic speed. The doors swung open, and a Peacekeeper pulled the disoriented duo out of the elevator, and under a dark shape that hovered ominously above them. Alanna looked right at the object, and just as she figured out what it was, a brightly coloured beam encompassed both her and Caleb, lifting them off the ground, towards the hovercraft. Alanna tried to reach out to Caleb, but she couldn't move her arm at all. She remained motionless as a yellow hand grabbed her, pulling her into the hovercraft.

Alanna looked up at the strange woman in front of her as she pointed to an empty seat in a ring of seats, occupied by people that Alanna had never seen before- wait, they were the tributes. She shakily stood up, and sat down on the seat, a safety harness locking her in place. To her left was April, and to her right was Caleb, both somewhat dazed and confused. Alanna looked in front of her, and saw the monstrous boy from 5 staring directly at her, his cold eyes attempting to penetrate her very essence. It was unnerving to say the least.

Suddenly, a sharp sensation began in her arm, spreading outwards as the pain increased. She whipped her head around to find the woman from before holding a syringe in her hand.

"Your tracker." She replied shortly, before moving on to April. After finishing all the tributes, the woman walked into another room, and the sensation of movement was soon felt by Alanna.

"Hey, Alanna," Alanna turned to face April, "What do you think the arena's gonna be like?"

"I don't know. I'm hoping for somewhere with many hiding places. That way we can avoid contact for as long as possible."

The conversation was cut short by a rumble that shook the entire hovercraft.

"We're here." Alanna muttered under her breath. Up to two weeks of Hell on Earth that began today. She tried to get out of her seat, but the harness wouldn't budge. She looked around, and saw that the other tributes were in the same position as her, confusion etched into their faces. Suddenly, a brightly coloured mist began to emanate from the walls. Instantly tributes began to choke on whatever it was. Alanna took a huge gulp of air in, and held her breath as the fog enveloped her. She looked around as the others had begun to lose consciousness. She looked to see her two allied slumped over, and panic began to set in, but she held her breath still. Another round of gas was pumped into the room, and with her lungs on fire and her head light, Alanna took another breath. Her entire windpipe felt like it had just been set on fire and she began to splutter and wheeze, until she fell forward, losing her grip on reality.

When she came to, Alanna was in a different, smaller room, with a tube in the corner. The launch room. She stood up, and took a breath. Her lungs no longer burned. She looked down, and noticed that her outfit had changed to a black tracksuit. She unzipped it to find a black sleeveless shirt, and a pair of shorts underneath. She quickly zipped it back up, and looked at her feet. She was wearing running shoes, made of a durable material. A loud beeping blared throughout the room, and Alanna took this to mean that it was time for the Games to begin. She stood on the dark grey platform, and a glass tube encased her, trapping her inside the launch pod. It began to rise, and Alanna was greeted with pure darkness before a blinding light.

The temperature was uncomfortably warm, and the sun was shining brightly as Alanna squinted to get a good view of the Cornucopia. The golden horn finally came into view- but instead of being piled high with weapons, it was filled with crates. The surrounding area was littered with weapons and bags of various different colours. Alanna looked around. She appeared to be on a field of sun baked dirt, with two long buildings blocking off two potential escape routes. She looked around, and the nearby tributes weren't any she knew. In the distance, she could make out the silhouettes of three massive wheels, looming ominously in the distance.

**5.** The sudden appearance of the robotic voice snapped her out of her thought process, and focused on the immediate area surrounding her platform.

**4.** There were four bags surrounding her; coloured pink, purple, blue and green. The green one would be the best bet- the colour would help it blend in with the environment.

**3.** But right in front of her was the ultimate prize- her blowgun, complete with five darts with lethally sharp edges. Perfect.

**2.** Alanna controlled her breathing, taking slow, deliberate breaths.

**1.** She crouched down, ready to grab the bag and run.

The sound of the gong rang out, and Alanna leapt off her platform, grabbing the green bag as she ran. She hoisted it up to her shoulders as she sprinted towards the blowgun, barely avoiding another tribute. She grabbed the weapon, and wasted no time in loading it. She looked around. Already tributes were battling it out for the supplies. Then she noticed two figures. Caleb, and the boy from 5, holding a massive spiked club, prepared to end Caleb's life then and there. Caleb held up his measly knife, tears streaming down his face as the club came down towards his skull. Thinking on her feet, Alanna threw herself onto Caleb, the object inside her bag taking the full force of the club. The boy from 5 lifted it back up, prepared to strike again. Alanna grabbed Caleb's hand, and dragged him out of there as Caleb got to his feet.

They both sprinted in the opposite direction of that monster; headed east. The dirt ground became pavement as their running shoes propelled them across the concrete ground. A flash of colour caught Alanna's eye, and she noticed a large amount of tents. She ran down the path towards them, Caleb right behind her. The grey turned to blue as they reaced the maze of oddly coloured tents. Looking around anxiously, Alanna darted into the yellow one in the middle of the collection of tents, and zipped it shut as Caleb crawled in. They both collapsed to the floor, panting.

"You alright?" Caleb said in between gasps, sweat pouring down his reddened face.

"Just fine." Alanna took off her bag, and looked at it. There were holes where the club had impacted it, but she still couldn't see what was inside. She turned it over, and found no way to access whatever lay inside. Sighing in frustration, she threw it to the floor, and pushed her sandy blonde hair out of her face, and saw Caleb having a similar problem with his pink bag.

"Maybe they'll open in the night." Alanna said wearily, laying down.

"Let's hope so." Caleb replied, twirling the knife in his hands. "Hey, what about the others?"

"We don't know for sure if they survived the bloodbath, so once we determine who lived and who died tonight, we'll look for them tomorrow. For now, let's just lay low."

Markus shot off his platform, grabbing a blue bag as he ran into the Cornucopia, the golden horn offering all sorts of prizes. He moved one of the crates, and found the perfect weapon. A large club, with silver spiked ends that reflected the gleaming sunlight in such a way that it was irresistable to him. He picked up the large weapon, and stepped out of the mouth of the horn, and saw someone close. Not an ally, no, a tribute.

He readied his weapon, and charged. But the boy saw it coming, and leapt behind a crate, clutching his knife for dear life, quivering. Markus grabbed the massive crate, and tossed it aside, leaving the whimpering boy exposed. He brought his club down, and it made contact with a green bag. Wait. He was supposed to hit the boys head, blood flying everywhere, not a bag. He brought it up once more, and when he brought it down again, the pair had fled. But what did it matter. It was just two weak kids that got lucky. He'd find them later.

He ran out of the pile of crates, looking around for other tributes to slaughter. But they had all fled, leaving the place empty, with a few weak looking weapons laying about on the floor, abandoned as everyone ran for their lives. This was thoroughly disappointing; a bloodbath with zero casualties. Sighing, Markus stormed into the Cornucopia, sitting down inside it at the back, holding his club, waiting for some tribute to come and fall into his trap. But none came.

The sun was now beginning to set, and Markus stood up, stretching his legs. Today had been very unproductive; tomorrow he would find his alliance, the redhead and the cocky one, and get some serious killing done. But for now, he would get comfortable inside the Cornucopia, ready to cause a bloodbath worthy casualty total the next day.


	5. Chapter 5

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna lazily opened her eyes to see the yellow fabric of the tent roof slightly moving with the subtle breeze. She sat up, and saw Caleb stirring, curled up around his purple backpack. Something seemed off about the bag, though, and Alanna carefully removed it from his grip. She looked over it, trying to find what was odd about it. Then she saw it. A small silver zipper had appeared on the top of the bag, seemingly overnight. She grabbed the green bag that she threw across the room, and found the same zipper on her bag. She unzipped it, and looked inside.

She wasted no time in pouring the contents onto the floor, and took inventory. There was what looked like a lock pick, which could be useful to her, but she felt that it would be more beneficial to Caleb. She set it aside, and grabbed the next item. A length of rope. This was perfect. It was long enough to set a simple snare trap with it, and more than enough to choke somebody. Next up was an empty canteen of water, rendering it useless. Alanna shoved it back in her bag, and took out the last item.

It was a bottle full of a milky white liquid, labelled 'Poison Cure. Ten doses.'. Alanna read the label once more, and placed it back in her bag. That would probably come in handy. She looked back to Caleb, who was just waking up.

"Morning Alanna," He said sleepily as he rubbed his eyes, "Hey, what you got there?"

"Caleb, the backpacks opened up last night. Don't worry, I didn't check yours, but I do have something that you'll find more useful than I will." Caleb unzipped the purple bag, and took out the first item; a thick insulating blanket. The next item was another empty canteen, and Caleb sighed in frustration. Finally, he pulled out a bottle that was identical to Alanna's, but the liquid was coloured a deep blood red, with the label 'Nightlock Juice'. Alanna read the label again. That would be perfect for her darts, but she'd need to trade something for it.

"Hey, Caleb. I have a lockpick that I think you'll be able to use better than me." Caleb's eyes lit up.

"What?"

"Yep." Alanna grabbed the pick, and showed it to him.

"Wow! Um, would it be alright if I did have it? You know, since I managed to pick the locks much faster than you." Caleb began to look through his items, "Anything you want for it?"

"Well," Alanna began, "My blowdarts are good and all, but I think that if they did hit someone, it wouldn't do much damage. So I'm wondering if I could have the poison?" Bingo.

"Sure." The two exchanged items, and Alanna dipped one of her darts into the poison, coating it, before placing the deadly bottle in her bag.

"So now what do we do, Alan-" A low growl cut off Caleb's sentence. He shot Alanna a puzzled glance, before they heard another growl.

"What was that?" Caleb finally said.

"I don't know," Alanna replied, "But whatever it is, it isn't good."

Alanna quickly got to her feet, and peered out of the safety of her tent. There were several bulbous figures ambling around outside; human shaped. Her heart rate increased. These things weren't tributes. She slipped back inside.

"Caleb," Alanna began, wide eyed. "We have to get out of here. Mutts."

Caleb wasted no time in putting his bag on, drawing his knife. Alanna loaded her blowgun with the toxic dart, and they both took a step forward, when massive shadows circled the tent.

"They're trying to get in..." Alanna muttered under her breath. She held the blowgun close to her mouth, controlling her breathing.

Suddenly, the wall they were facing began to smoke as a dull liquid fell to the floor. They both leapt back as more of the fluid assaulted the walls and roof, Caleb barely avoiding it as it dripped down. A loud groan rang out, and several massive creatures broke into the tent. They were human shaped, but massively inflated, and their skin was in various stages of decomposition. Alanna resisted the urge to vomit. They began to gargle, and fired more of the liquid from their mouths. Caleb grabbed Alanna, and they leapt out of the tent. Alanna got to her feet, and the both of them ran. Alanna looked around; they were everywhere, burning the tents to the ground, searching for tributes.

"Alanna, what do we do?" Caleb cried out.

"I-I don't know Caleb! I haven't had time to think! They just came out of nowhere..." Alanna trailed off, looking around. There had to be somewhere safe, there just had to. She looked, and saw that one of the looming wheels was just a little north of where they currently were.

"Caleb. We can get to the wheel, and climb that. They don't seem like they're capable of climbing." Alanna stated as they began to run towards it. They ran through the melting tents, barely avoiding the vomit on several occasions, until the blue floor finally became dirt once more. Alanna looked up, and saw the massive steel wheel. There were several carts, all connected via metal rods that could easily be climbed. She leapt onto the lowest cart, Caleb following. They both began to climb the carts and rods that made a natural ladder of sorts, until they finally reached the top. Alanna looked down at the arena, and saw that many of those decomposing monsters roamed everywhere. The ground was no longer safe. She could see several tributes running from the muttations, trying to look for safety. She'd have to search for her alliance later on.

Markus Lucian:

Markus stirred awake as the sun's light reflected off the golden Cornucopia, and into his eyes. He looked in front of him. All but one of the crates had vanished. He walked over to it, and opened it.

Inside he found three pitch black rocks, each with sharp ends that made them deadly to touch. They would be perfect for sharpening the edges of his club. He also found a small vial labeled 'Cure All' which would be perfect for healing any injuries he would get in the future. He put that in his grey bag, alongside the medicinal berries that he found in there in the early hours of the morning. Inside the box he also found a perfectly preserved bird that would probably keep for about three days. And neatly curled up in the bottom of the box was a piece of paper. He unrolled it, and studied the images on it. It was a map of the arena. This would come in handy, as he could clearly see where tributes would be most likely to hide; tents, buildings with basements, the massive wheels, he could see all of them.

Suddenly, he heard a noise. A deep, low groaning sound. He grabbed his club, and stepped outside. It was empty, the early morning sun shining down. It was probably just some tribute hiding nearby. He turned to go back into his shelter, when a foul smelling liquid splashed in front of him. He leapt back, and looked at the top of the Cornucopia.

Standing on the mouth of the golden horn was a massive bulbous person, their skin decayed, with a massive protruding stomach. The smell of rotting flesh was so potent, that Markus found that his stomach was doing somersaults. He backed off as the creature leapt off the Cornucopia. It hit the floor, exploding into a mass of bodily fluids. Markus dropped to the ground, avoiding the toxic bile. He ran back into the Cornucopia, and grabbed the items from the box, putting them in his bag. Another massive monster appeared, and Markus grabbed the box, and threw it at it, the creature spewing out more vomit that melted the box into nothing. Markus backed away; this wasn't a fight he was going to win. Clenching his weapon, he turned and ran, headed south. He avoided the spray of several more Muttations, and reached a large gathering of trees. He climbed one, and leapt through the treeline, no more Mutts in sight.

He reached the other end, and hopped off. In front of him was a lake, the soft blue water rippling and reflecting the sun and sky. On the far side of the lake was another person; Gryffon.

"Hey," Markus called out to his ally, "You alright?"

"Fine," Gryffon replied, "Barely avoided these screaming women though." He jogged around the lake, meeting up with Markus.

"Got any food?"  
"No, I've been running off adrenaline for the past twenty four hours."

"Here," Markus pulled out the roast bird, and pulled off the legs, handing one to Gryffon, "Take this." Gryffon greedily snatched it out of Markus' hand, and chewed down on the golden meat. He reached into his bag, and pulled out a canteen of water.

"Where'd you get the water?" Markus asked, wrapping the bird up and placing it in his bag.

"The lake water's safe to drink." Gryffon motioned to the body of water in front of them. Markus pulled out his canteen, and made his way to the waterline, filling the container with the liquid. He took a sip; it was cold, and refreshing. Markus quickly gulped down the canteen, and refilled it.

"Hey, Markus. You seen Emily at all on your travels?"

"No. Haven't seen her since the bloodbath. How's about this; we look for her if we all survive the zombies, although I doubt all three of us will make it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gryffon raised an eyebrow at Markus.

"It means that Redhead may run into some bother finding us." Markus snapped back, taking another sip of his water. He walked to the trees, and sat under the shade of one. He'd indulge his alliance later; for now, he rested.


	6. Chapter 6

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna opened her eyes as the early morning sun disturbed her. She rubbed her eyes, as Caleb stirred beside her. They were still in the silver cart that they climbed into yesterday to escape the vomiting Muttations. They had both escaped unharmed, if only a little shaken up. Alanna looked over the edge of the cart, and saw that the arena was empty; the Mutts had completely vanished overnight.

Suddenly, a loud groan emitted from the wheel as the cart began to move downwards. Alanna gulped, the Mutts had better be gone. The cart continued moving downwards, stopping with a click as it reached the bottom, shuddering. Caleb opened his eyes, and stared blankly at Alanna.

"Good morning." Alanna said dryly. Caleb said nothing, standing up. Alanna opened the cart, and stepped out, helping Caleb out as well. As soon as they were both out, a twang of pain coursed throughout Alanna's stomach; hunger. Her tongue was also beginning to dry up as well. She probably wouldn't last the rest of the day without getting something into her system. Judging by the vacant look in Caleb's eyes, he was also having problems functioning.

They walked down the street, and came upon a beige dome shaped building. Alanna walked up to it, her head beginning to ache from dehydration, and the doors slid open automatically. She stepped in, and found several padded chairs, a velvet carpet, and at the far end of the room, a sink, with water flowing into it. Water! She ran across the room, up to the sink, and stuck her canteen under it until it overflowed. She greedily gulped it down, then refilled it again.

"Caleb! We've got water!" Alanna cried out, almost laughing with joy. Upon the mention of these words, Caleb sprang to life, pulling out his bone dry canteen and filling it up, drinking so much that twice more he had to refill it.

"This is great Alanna! Now all we need is food."

"Yeah, that would be great..." Alanna said ruefully, her groaning stomach not satisfied by the water.

"Hehehe..." A surreal giggling sound caused all thoughts of hunger to immediately leave Alanna's mind.

"Caleb," She whispered, pulling out her blowgun, loading it with the poisoned dart, "Get your knife."

"Alanna, what is-"

"Just get your knife. I think we've got company." As soon as the words left her mouth, a red balloon floated into the room, shaped like a person. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to resemble Alanna, complete with the blowgun. She backed into a corner as the floating rubber shape advanced towards her.

"Hehehe..." The giggling again, this time higher pitched. The balloon floated onto Alanna's head, touching her face.

"Get it off me! Someone! Anyone! Help!" Alanna screamed louder and louder, tears beginning to flow down her pale cheeks. She was shaking as the balloon hovered innocently around her face. Seeing Alanna in this much distress, Caleb sprang into action, throwing his knife at the balloon. It burst, showering the both of them in a red sticky liquid.

"Alanna, this isn't," Caleb began, retrieving his knife.

"No, It's fake." Alanna replied shakily, getting to her feet, clutching her blowgun for dear life.

"Hehehe..." The giggling rang out again, seemingly coming from nowhere. The pair stood closer, both quivering as the laughing grew louder. Alanna turned around, and saw the water turn a blood red. She screamed, and backed off, nearly tripping Caleb up.

"Alanna, what is it?" Alanna stared at him, wide eyed, about to say something, when the sound of shattering glass caught their attention. The window had been destroyed by something. Caleb stood forward, and walked over to the window, surveying the damage.

"It seems as if it was attacked by a sharp object multiple times, before finally cracking under the pressure." He bent down, picking up a bloodstained shard of glass. He let out a sharp gasp, and threw it to the floor, too distracted to avoid the monster throwing itself at him.

Alanna stood there, paralysed with fear as the monster crushed her district partner. It was about seven feet tall, with artificially white skin, and hair dyed various colours of the rainbow. It looked like a Capitol citizen had been thrown on top of Caleb, and given razor sharp claws and a rusty knife. Caleb squirmed as he tried to escape the grasp of the monster, but was overpowered. It let out another nightmarish giggle as it drew its knife, the point slowly descending to Caleb's throat. He was going to die. Alanna's district partner was going to die. She shut her eyes, and willed it to be quick.

"Alanna, help! Please!" Her eyes flew open as her gaze met Caleb's, his face tearstained as the tip hovered mere inches from his jugular. "Please." He repeated, his voice deflated. Anger suddenly welled up inside Alanna. How dare the Capitol try and kill him like this. She pulled out her poison, and dipped two more darts in it, tightly screwing the lid shut, loaded her blowgun, and fired. The tip of the dart struck the clown right in the eye, and it fell backwards, its eyes glossed over. Dead.

Alanna pulled Caleb up, getting him as far away from it as possible. She then swallowed the rising bile in her stomach, and walked over to the dead Mutt. It looked like the spitting image of her stylist, complete witht the feline eyes and forked tongue. She pulled the dart out of the eye, and blood squirted out, the eyeball deflating. She gagged as the stench hit her nose, and lost all the water that had just reached her stomach, backing off quickly.

"Caleb, let's get out of here." They both ran out of the building, leaving the corpse of the Mutt to be soaked by the now overflowing sink, its face still etched into a smile.

They both ran down the street, not looking back, not wanting to think of the unholy scene that had played out back there. Alanna wanted to be as far away from those monsters as possible. They both stopped to catch their breath, Alanna's lungs burning and her stomach groaning. Exhaustion was battling adrenaline for dominance as Alanna took in her surroundings. They were just next to the blue ground of the tented area, with no more of those monsters in sight, which was good.

"Help!" A familiar voice pierced the palpable atmosphere. Alanna recognised it instantly as a member of her alliance. She turned to Caleb, who nodded at her. They both held their weapons close, and ran towards the source of the sound. They ran through several derelict singed tents, until Alanna saw a sign.

'Mall just ahead!' She looked a little further ahead, and saw two figures back to back, fending off a horde of the clowns. April and Alluma, arrows and knives being thrown into the crowd, the Mutts still pressing towards them. Acting on impulse, Alanna coated all of her darts with small amounts of poison, using half the bottle, and loaded her blowgun. She ran into the crowd of clowns, expertly dodging their deadly claws, and fired, darts flying everywhere. After about a minute, they all dropped dead, and Alluma, April and Caera looked in awe as Alanna retrieved the darts.

"Thanks." April said, lowering her bow. "You just saved us." Alanna offered a shy smile.

"Don't mention it."

"Care for some food? Apparently I have a very generous sponsor." Both Alanna and Caleb's eyes lit up at the mention of food, and they joined the others as April gave each of them a leg of roast turkey. Alanna heartily munched down, smiling widely. Finally, the alliance had been reunited.

Markus Lucian:

Markus rubbed his eyes open and placed his hands back down on the dew-stained grass. He got to his feet, and saw Gryffon was already up, drinking from the lake water.

"Ah, see you're finally up, sleeping beauty." Gryffon turned to face Markus, smirking. He said nothing in reply, just grunted and picked up his club.

"You know, a simple 'Good morning' would have sufficed." Markus replied sourly, taking a swig from his canteen, and tore off another strip from his roast bird, chewing on it thoroughly. He cupped some water in his hands, and rinsed his face.

"Howdy boys," Both Markus and Gryffon snapped their heads around to find Emily standing in the treeline, completely covered in blood. She began to step forward, before covering her nose, gagging slightly, "Oh dear god, what the hell is that stench!"

"Well aren't you quiet a sight. The hell happened to you?" Markus replied, looking up and down the injured Emily.

"Answer my question first, THEN I'll answer mine," she raised her brow.

"Pretentious bitch," Gryffon mumbled.

"What was that?" Emily snapped.

"Nothing," he shook his head and pressed his lips in a hard line, obviously keeping himself from laughing at her reaction.

"A giant blob puked close by to me. There were some around. Ended up exploding everywhere whenever it hit something," Markus finally answered after Emily and Gryffon finished bickering at each other.

"Ew . . . that doesn't sound pleasant," Emily looked to Markus in disgust.

"What about you?" Gryffon asked.

"A horde of undead people attacked me in large numbers," she replied. "And what about you Score Three?" she teased.

Gryffon's eyes narrowed and glared at her with a dark look in his eyes. He got the lowest score in that alliance. Surprising too since Careers were always the ones that got higher scores. Guess Gryffon proved not all Careers are great. "An emotional bitch attacked me. Ran around screaming at me before scratching the living hell out of me," he answered and showed Emily his tattered arm.

Emily busted out laughing and Markus joined them. Maniacal laughter, as better described. The whole alliance was together. Now for the real fun to begin.

A rustling sound cut the reunion short, as all three drew their weapons in anticipation of what was there. They quickly ran through the treeline, finding nothing as they approached the golden horn that was the Cornucopia. Emily checked inside the mouth, and Markus and Gryffon checking around the corners. As Markus peered around the corner, a red balloon floated towards him, shaped exactly like him, complete with his weapon. He swung his club, and it exploded, showering him in a layer of fake blood. He barely had time to wipe the red liquid from his eyes before something clawed across his face, drawing blood. He leapt back, and ran towards his allies, only to find them fending off two identical creatures; pasty faced, with rainbow hair. In one hand they held a massive rusty blade, and the other hand ended with deadly sharp claws.

"What the hell's going on!?" Markus yelled out to the other two members of his alliance.

"It seems we intruded on the Flickerman family outing." Gryffon replied back, glaring at the monster. Markus turned behind him to find another one of them standing just inches away from him. He lifted his club, and swung it. Right into the creature's chest. Blood gushed out as it snarled, and it leapt towards Markus, trying to pin him to the ground. He leapt back, but wasn't fast enough as the rusted blade dug into his forehead.

"Damn it!" He yelled as he kicked the Mutt, knocking it to the floor. He lifted his club once more, and brought it down onto the creature's throat. He kept pressing it down, rotating it rapidly, until the monster's head fell off, floating in a pool of blood. Panting, Markus tore a strip of fabric from the sleeve of his shirt, and wrapped it around his forehead, stifling the blood flow. He then bent down, and picked up the rusty blade, and put it in his bag. At least he got another weapon from this.

He returned to his allies, who had also managed to get the creatures to the floor.

"Those things were crazy fast," Gryffon said to Markus, "But surprisingly easy to take out." Emily retrieved her staff from the lifeless corpse of the Mutt that attacked her, and rejoined the boys. They were a little beaten up, yes, but the Cold Killer alliance was finally together. Watch out tributes, Markus thought, because you won't know what hit you.


	7. Chapter 7

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna rolled over, her eyes shooting open as an intense pain coursed throughout her stomach. Shakily, she stood up, staggering past the sleeping members of her alliance, and vomited the contents of her stomach all over a tree. She backed away from it, and tripped over Alluma as she made her way back to her bag.

"Alanna, are you alright?" Alluma said as she let out a yawn, "You don't look so good." Another spasm of pain wracked Alanna's stomach, and she resisted the urge to throw up again. She remembered feeling like this once before, back home. But what had caused it? She tried to think as she heard Caleb groan and stagger away, emptying his stomach too. A memory floated to the surface of her mind; she was only young, but something had been tainted. Tainted...

She was poisoned! Alanna held back the wave of nausea that overtook her as she went through all the possible things. It couldn't have been the food, since the others weren't puking their guts up, and she hadn't ingested any of her poison. She had only used it to kill the clown Mutt back in the building, near the massive golden sink. It finally hit her. The water was poisoned.

Alanna reached into her bag, and pulled out the small bottle with the milky white fluid- the poison cure. Furtively, she crept around the back of the nearest building, and chugged down the bottle. It tasted like a mixture of mint and strawberries, a disgusting combination, but instantly the agonising pain began to subside. She let out a sigh of relief as the urge to vomit died down, and returned to her bag, the other members of the alliance waking up. She went to return the bottle into her bag, but noticed that all the fluid had gone from the bottle. It lied! It had said ten doses, but the Gamemakers had only put enough in to remove the poison from her system. Sighing in frustration and anger, she launched the small bottle towards the wall of a nearby building, the glass shattering everywhere, and emptied her canteen on the floor, throwing the metallic container back into the depths of the green backpack.

"Morning everyone." April said warmly, smiling as she rubbed her eyes. Her smile wiped off her face when she saw the vomit on the floor. "What happened?"

"Turns out any water that wasn't given to you by a sponsor's poisoned." Alanna said flatly, "I didn't drink much, so I think I got most of it out of my system when I puked earlier."

"I guess I must have drank too much then." Both girls turned their heads to see Caleb standing there weakly, his face deathly pale. Alanna pushed away the feeling of guilt as she watched him pick up his bag. None of them needed to know that she had taken the cure, and this way Caleb would probably die without any other tribute slaughtering him.

"I'm sure you'll be fine as the day progresses." Alanna said, unsure of herself. He may actually be dead by the evening, and since they both drank the same water, suspicions would be raised.

Suddenly, a loud fanfare of trumpets blared out from seemingly nowhere, and all five members of the alliance looked up above them as the Capitol's seal appeared in the early morning sky.

"Attention tributes, attention," It was the voice of the head Gamemaker, "As you all are aware, most of you are running low on supplies, especially water." He lingered on the word water for just a moment, stressing the final syllable. "So we have decided to show you our generous nature, and prepare a feast at the Cornucopia, piled high with every food you could think of." A feast. But after the fiasco with the water, Alanna was dubious of the food's quality. "And lastly, we have a special surprise for you all- as voted by loyal fans of the Hunger Games. So good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour." The seal vanished, and the five of them exchanged quizzical looks.

"A feast?" Alluma finally broke the silence. "I don't think we should go. We have plenty of food, and since there isn't any medicine available, it'd only be getting ourselves into another bloodbath." Caleb and Caera nodded in agreement, whilst April seemed conflicted.

"I don't know, we now know that the water is a no-go, and the way the Gamemaker said it makes me think that they've drained all the water from the arena."

"But last I heard, the members of that killer alliance were hanging around there." Alluma countered, "At least, it seems the logical place for them to be, since the traditional Career pack is non existent, with only the boy from 1 remaining from those who trained." An awkward silence descended once more, all of them glaring at one another with torn opinions.

Before anyone could do anything, however, they were all alerted by the ground shaking. Alanna leapt to her feet, everyone but Caleb doing the same; he was vomiting once more. Suddenly, a flash of red leapt out at the girls, instantly becoming covered in smoke. Alanna began to choke on the fumes as she ran out of the cloud, and saw a horrific sight. The entire mall area was on fire, with sparks flying from some of the tents. Alanna heard sounds coming from inside the cloud of thick black smoke; her alliance.

"Oh god, what happened!"

"Get out!"

"But what about Caleb?!"

"Okay, you two help him out, I'll make sure Alanna's safe!"

Alluma staggered out of the cloud, her face stained with soot, followed by April and Caera as they carried an unconscious Caleb out, and placed him on the ground.

"What happened?" April finally said, drawing her bow, looking around frantically.

"Please don't be another Mutt..." Caera whimpered, clutching her scythe close to her body. Alanna turned to face Alluma, who was pointing at something in the distance.

It looked like a bald man, but three times the size, wearing nothing but a loincloth. Then Alanna noticed the hammer. It was massive, and was spitting embers. Another Muttation.

"Run!" Alanna yelled, pulling out her blowgun as the hulking mass of muscle approached them. It stopped moving, and pointed the hammer at the alliance of five. Brightly coloured electrical sparks came flying out, barely missing them. It fired once more, this time a roasting stream of fire coming right at them. They hit the floor as the roaring flames flew over their heads. It stopped, and Alanna jumped up, and noticed how close it had become to them. Caera was within arm's length of it, and she seemed to notice, crawling away frantically. April and Alluma lifted up Caleb, and they ran from the massive Mutt. But it began to run as well, catching up to them.

"Darn it," April yelled, "It's closing in!" As soon as the words escaped her lips, the Mutt threw its hammer towards them. Alanna leapt off the purple pavement, into a small gathering of trees, and heard a deafening explosion. She couldn't tell if anyone had died; the sound would have masked out any cannons. She waited for a moment, but only silence greeted her. She peered out, and saw a cloud of debris obscuring. She had to assume they had all died. And if they didn't, they could just regroup later. Holding her blowgun close, Alanna leapt out of the trees, and ran in the opposite direction of the blast, headed west.

She quickly found an empty building, coloured a beige colour in the afternoon sunlight. Alanna walked up to one of the windows, and smashed it open with her foot, jumping in. She had just entered the pitch black room when the ground began to rumble again. She hit the floor, crawling under the windowsill as the sound grew louder, holding her breath. A small spider crawled up her arm, and across her face, and she had to bite her tongue to stop herself screaming. The stomping grew distant, and she breathed in relief, blowing the spider off her mouth. At least she was safe for the moment.

Markus Lucian:

Markus woke in a cold sweat, shaking. Something was wrong. He leapt to his feet, his head pounding. He touched the claw marks on his face, and it sent a shock wave of agony throughout his face. A wave of dizziness washed over him, forcing him to sit down inside the Cornucopia. He remembered looking up on this once before, back home in his district. He was poisoned. He pulled open his bag, and grabbed the cure-all. He opened it, and tipped the contents into his mouth, and swallowed hard. The world stopped spinning, and he stood up, the pain dulling down.

He stood up again, and walked out of the mouth of the golden horn, and found the two members of his alliance sleeping, but their sleep was anything but peaceful. They both had sweat trickling down their foreheads, and were tossing and turning. Eventually, Emily's eyes shot open, and she looked straight at Markus, blankly.

"Good mornin, redhead." He chuckled, but Emily just sat there for a moment, before finally shooting him a deadly glare.

"I'm not called redhead, you psycho." She spat as she climbed to her feet, wincing slightly. She seemed to be poisoned too. "And absolutely nothing is good about this morning."

"Why ever not?" Markus said with an over exaggerated tone, "Oh yeah. You're still alive."

"Funny," Emily snapped back, "Let's see how much you'll be laughing when it's me on the victory tour and not you- Oh yeah, you won't be able to. You'll be dead."

"Calm down, calm down," They both turned to face Gryffon, who was slightly grinning, "Save it for the honeymoon."

"Fine," Emily spat, "But what're we gonna do today? I don't see how the Gamemakers could throw anything worse at us than those freaking clowns."

Suddenly, a loud fanfare of trumpets blared out from seemingly nowhere, and the alliance looked up as the Capitol's seal appeared in the early morning sky.

"Attention tributes, attention," It was the voice of the head Gamemaker, "As you all are aware, most of you are running low on supplies, especially water." He lingered on the word water for just a moment, stressing the final syllable. "So we have decided to show you our generous nature, and prepare a feast at the Cornucopia, piled high with every food you could think of." A feast. But given the fact that they had been poisoned, it was safe to assume that it probably wouldn't be safe. "And lastly, we have a special surprise for you all- as voted by loyal fans of the Hunger Games. So good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour." The seal vanished, and the three of them exchanged quizzical looks.

"Great!" Emily groaned. "I'm freaking starving!" she cried in an annoyed tone.

"Think a bit, Redhead, don't you think they'd do something to it?" Markus challenged, getting an approving nod from Gryffon.

"Why chance it? We can get food some other way," Gryffon said. Markus then turned his head, eyes narrowing toward the sound of a whip. Emily snapped her attention toward the sound too, staring toward the absent feeling of the tribute around the corner. Markus took the lead and found one of the tributes, Nova, getting a water bottle from behind the Cornucopia.

"Aw, hell no!" Gryffon growled before Markus leaped and attacked Nova, club in hand. He swung at her, but she was prepared, expertly leaping out of the way before striking Markus with her whip. He recoiled in pain as his hip throbbbed, but he wasn't going down that easy. He charged towards her, avoiding the stinging blow of the whip, and slammed the club into her shoulder, the fabric tearing away to reveal the bloodied hunk of flesh. She let out a scream, but kept hold of the water. She struck her whip out once more, catching Markus' hand, making him drop his club to the floor, and made a mad dash for it out of there. Markus swore under his breath as he picked his club up again, and returned to the scene of the feast, and was taken off guard by the sight that was playing out in front of him. Emily and Gryffon were struggling against a massive naked man holding a giant hammer, and tiring quickly. As they backed off, Markus noticed something. Small embers were beginning to spit out of the hammer.

He sprinted forwards, and rammed the club into the monster's arm, causing it to dropo the hammer as it unleashed a stream of fire.

"Keep the hammer away from it!" Markus yelled to the members of his alliance as he pulled the club from the Mutt's arm, and leapt back to avoid its fist. It was built like a human, meaning that it was just like hand to hand combat, but on a larger scale, and with a spiked club. He swung again, hitting the back of the Mutt's kneecap, and it buckled. He looked back to see Emily and Gryffon moving the heavy hammer out of the Mutt's grasp. Wait a minute, if he could use the flames on it, he could take it out!

Markus quickly backed off from the Mutt, and joined Emily and Gryffon.

"I have an idea," Markus panted, "If we can use the fire from the hammer, we can kill it!"

"That could work," Gryffon stated, before glancing back to the Mutt, who was now rising back up, "But you'll need to do it now!" Markus dropped his club to the floor, and picked up the hammer. It was ridiculously heavy, but all he needed to do was throw it a small distance to the Mutt, and hope it caught fire. He pulled his arms back, and released, the hammer flying towards the scantily clad monster. It made contact with its knee, making it release a cry of pain, before hissing.

"Get back!" Markus barked, and they all backed off, Markus retrieving his club. He stood and watched as the Mutt went to pick up the hammer, only to have it start hissing.

_**BOOM**_

The Mutt went up in smoke, bits of ragged flesh raining down on the feast, crushing the food, leaving a small crater on the floor. Markus offered a weak triumphant smile, before collapsing to the floor.

"My god, you killed it!" Both Emily and Gryffon said in unison.

"Yeah," Markus gasped, "I guess I did."

"Shame about the food though," Emily sighed, "I doubt all of it would have been poisoned."

"But we still have some food in our bags." Markus said, and pulled out the remainders of the roast bird, and split it up three ways.

"Thanks." Emily said shortly, before digging into the meat, her eyes lighting up with joy.

"Same." Gryffon managed to say between mouthfuls.

After they finished their meal, Markus crawled under a tree, and shut his eyes, barely able to stay awake. Who knows, he thought, maybe tomorrow they'd get some peace from all these Mutts.


	8. Chapter 8

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna's eyes shot open as she wiped the dust off of her face. At least the side effects of the poison had gone. She stood up, her body still going strong from the meal she had the previous day. She climbed out of the smashed window, no Mutts in sight. Good. She stretched and yawned, and pulled out her blowdart, with a mission in mind.

Last night, the Capitol seal had shown that nobody had died at the hands of the bulking Mutts, which meant her alliance was still alive and kicking. Which meant that Caleb was still holding on somehow... This thought eased the guilt that was eating up at her.

Suddenly, the fanfare that was the Capitol's anthem started to burst out from its hidden source, and the voice of the head Gamemaker once again bounced around throughout the arena.

"Hello tributes. We were very...displeased, to say the least, about how you treated the food we so graciously provided for you yesterday, so today, because of the actions of a select few, you all will be getting punished. the water is still gone and no sponsor gifts will be passed through today, in addition to a very creative way to bring some action into the Games, since you've been slacking in the death department. That is all. Good luck to all of you, and may the odds be ever in your favour..." The anthem blared out at full volume once more, and the arena grew silent once more.

Alanna stood there wearily. Punishment? That was a little on the extreme side, considering that half of the tributes didn't have the energy to attend the feast. And the creative way to spur them into action was giving off bad vibes. Probably yet another Mutt to try and slaughter them. She huffed in frustration, and walked along the wide grey road, leaving the tiny building behind her. Little did she know that by leaving when she did, she just avoided being burned to death by a massive golden hammer.

She continued to follow the road, staying in the shade of the trees for protection from the blistering sun, until she heard a noise. She whipped her head around, surveying the area, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Her mind was just playing tricks on her. Only day five, and you're going crazy, she thought to herself as she saw a small rodent scurry across the road. She instantly identified it as one of the Mutts she looked up in training, their death means that something dangerous would be about to happen. She curiously followed the small creature as it weaved around pebbles and potholes, until it suddenly flew backwards, smoking. Alanna stared at the dead creature. The only thing that would have been able to inflict such damage and so quickly would be the arena forcefield. Was she already so close to the edge? She took a couple of paces back from the location of the forcefield, and darted into the treeline, becoming virtually invisible to any nearby tribute.

Alanna stopped for a moment, catching her breath, and placed her hand on a tree, and felt a carving on it. She took her hand off, and inquisitively looked at it. It was a message, but it didn't make sense.

_Turning a blind eye is a sign of weakness._

It was obviously a riddle, but what it was referring to stumped her.

"Turning a blind eye is a sign of weakness..." She muttered under her breath, repeating the phrase over and over, trying to understand it. At school, she was always taught that turning a blind eye to a conflict was a sign of moral high ground, but this message was telling her it was a weakness.

"Guess it would be." She moaned to herself. This was the Hunger Games, where you needed all of your senses working at full capacity every second of every day. But perhaps the message was referring to danger as well. That thought worried her enough to fully load her blowgun with all the darts she had. If the Gamemakers had gone to this much trouble just to let her know of something, it was going to be bad. She continued forward stepping lightly under the cover of the foliage.

"Hehehe..." Alanna froze. No, it couldn't be. Not again. A shadow moved a little further ahead, and Alanna shot a dart at it, shaking. Something fell to the floor, the thumping sound seeming to cause the ground to shake. She ran to retrieve her dart, and found what she had hit. A mockingjay, laying dead on the floor, a dart in its skull. Alanna pulled it out of the dead bird, and loaded the blowgun again, turning around, and bumped into a pile of flesh.

"Hehehe..."

Alanna turned her head upwards, and found herself staring into the one open cat eye of a drooling strongman Mutt. She let out a sharp scream, and ran, the Mutt aiming its hammer right at her. A spiralling trail of red and yellow flames pursued her, setting the green trees alight. Panting, Alanna burst out of the treeline, and saw a deep hole. Probably a drained lake. She looked behind her, and saw the trees burning, clouds of smoke pouring out. Suddenly, sparks of various colours shot into the sky, close to the edge of the treeline on her side. She looked around frantically, searching for somewhere to hide from the Mutt.

"Hehehe..." It was close. Bracing herself, Alanna leapt into the drained lake, landing in one piece on the damp dirt floor. She found a small hole in the wall of the crater, and crawled in, not daring to breathe.

"Hehehe..." It was right above her, waiting for her to emerge. Smart as well as deadly. This wasn't good. Alanna felt something drip onto her. It burned her flesh as the toxic liquid rolled off her arm. More drips appeared, and she leapt out just as it collapsed, landing on the dirt with a thud. Seeing its prey, the Mutt jumped down towards her, and shot out its forked tongue, trying to ensnare her.

"Leave me alone!" She cried as she shot a dart at the Mutt's hand, attempting to disarm the massive golden hammer that it was lugging about. But the creature remained oblivous to the dart that was sticking into its massive beefy hand.

"No," Alanna whimpered, "It's impervious..." Suddenly, the Mutt raised the hammer, and took a swing at her, but Alanna leapt out of the way at the last moment, the hammer just making a dent in the floor instead. She scrambled to her feet, and ran as fast as humanly possible, the Mutt easily keeping up with her.

"_Turning a blind eye is a sign of weakness._" It cackled as it shot its tongue out, the burning saliva covering Alanna's cheek. It leapt to the side, attempting to pin her down, but Alanna kicked into full gear, outrunning the beast, adrenaline pounding throughout her veins. She looked back to see the monster getting back up, and she ran into a wall. The edge of the crater- climb or die. She stuck a hand into a loose outcropping of rock, pulling herself up, and grabbed onto the rim of the crater, and clambered out, panting. She tried to think of something, but the Mutt's words just echoed in her mind. They had to mean something, but what? She looked down to see the Mutt close to the edge, and desperately stood up, and bolted through another set of trees, unaware that she had just ran into enemy territory, and that the was Mutt right on her tail, setting the hammer's setting to explosive.

Markus Lucian:

_Having a pure heart will only mean certain death._

Markus re-read the slip of paper that he had found attatched to the tree he had been sleeping against. It was a riddle, that much he did know, but what it meant was a complete mystery. He looked over to see Emily and Gryffon laying in front of him, groaning. They were dying, from infection and poisoning, by the looks of it. They'd probably be dead within a couple of days if sponsors didn't get them something soon. But they would have to bear with the suffering for this day at least, since their actions at the Cornucopia had suspended all sponsor packages for twenty four hours. On the plus side, it meant other tributes wouldn't be able to get anything either.

Markus stood up, retrieving his club, and noticed that the edges were worn down from over using it. He went into his bag, and pulled out the rock that he had recieved from the box, with a tag labelled 'Sharpening Stone- for use on one weapon only.'. He propped the club up against a tree, and got to work sharpening the blunt points. After the stone had nearly been ground up into dust, he poked one of the spiked edges with his finger, instantly drawing blood. Perfect. It was as if the weapon had been restored to its former glory in the space of an hour. He picked it up, and patrolled their makeshift camp, looking for any signs of movement, but found none. Sighing, he wandered into the treeline, bored. His allies were essentially just laying about waiting for the moment death claimed them, and he was beginning to feel hungry. He ignored the growling of his stomach as a piercing scream rang out.

"Someone, please! Help!" Markus prepared his weapon, and returned to his camp in the clearing in the trees as a small figure ran past him, ignoring him completely. It was the twelve year old from District 6. He turned around, prepared to pursue this new prey when an eerie laugh cut him short.

"Hehehe..." Markus took a step back as he took in the bulging strongman Mutt that was standing in the middle of the clearing, ignoring his allies for the moment. Upon closer inspection, it was soon made apparent that this wasn't just another strongman; its one good eye was shaped like the clown Mutt's, and a trail of steaming drool was running down its exposed chest, glistening green in the sunlight.

"Super Mutt." Markus harshly whispered. He had read about those in training. They rarely appear, but are usually massive Mutts that have the combined features of previously seen Mutts in the arena. The last time one of these monsters had appeared had been thirty four years ago, roaming the underground section of the arena, and had claimed the lives of four tributes; three in the same day. This one here had what appeared to be each Mutt's deadliest feature, and was charging right at him.

Markus turned and ran, abandoning his allies for the moment as the Mutt chased him through the treeline, swinging its hammer, only missing Markus due to the sheer number of trees in close proximity to one another. He finally burst out, and found the girl from 6 staring at him, with a loaded blowgun aimed right at him.

"You dare take another step, and you'll be dead before you can say boom." She focused her cold blue eyes right at his face.

"Fine kid. Besides, we've got bigger problems right now," He was cut off by a deafening explosion as the trees behind him blew to smithereens, the Mutt standing there, focusing its one good eye on the pair of them, "Like that."

They both ran around the drained lake as the creature pursued them, laughing hysterically.

"_Turning a blind eye is a sign of weakness, and having a pure heart will only mean certain death." _The Mutt cried out as it fired sparks at the two of them, singeing Markus' back.

"What do we do?" The girl cried out as she began to lose momentum.

"Why should I care about you?" Markus snapped back, "If it weren't for the Mutt, you'd be dead!" Markus leapt out of the way as the Mutt's long, forked tongue wrapped around the girl, lifting her up. She cried out in pain as the saliva dripped onto her flesh, tears flowing down her pale cheeks. But somehow she found the strength to pull her blowgun close to her mouth, and fired a poison coated dart right at the Mutt. It connected with the blind eye, and the Mutt reeled back for a moment, dropping her to the floor.

"So that's what it meant." She said as she got up, keeping a close eye on Markus all the while.

"What do you mean kid?"

"This morning I woke to find a note saying something about turning a blind eye is a sign of weakness, and panicking, I shot the blind eye, hoping it would work."

"And it obviously did," Markus lowered his weapon, "Listen kid. I also found one of those notes, and it mentioned something about the heart getting you killed. I think that it means the heart is somewhere we should try to hit."

"And?" She looked as the Mutt still remained motionless, shuddering slightly.

"I'm saying that I need your help to take it down. You run around it, shooting continually, distracting it, whilst I go in for the kill."

"And if we succeed?"

"If we succeed," Markus flashed her a deadly smile, "I give you a ten second head start to get the hell outta here." He stuck an open hand out towards her. "Deal?"

"Deal." She replied, shaking his hand firmly.

Markus glanced towards the Mutt, and saw claws growing out of its hands, dripping with poison. It then looked right at the two of them, and tossed its hammer, the weapon in question beginning to emit smoke.

"It's gonna blow!" Markus yelled as he pulled the girl to the treeline, the hammer exploding a safe distance away from the two of them. They got out, and the Mutt now held a massive rusty blade, prepared to kill.

"Okay kid," Markus looked at her sharply, "Do it now!" She nodded with a look of determination on her face, and sprinted out, firing a barrage of darts at the Mutt, distracting it from him. All going to plan. He quickly ran to the rear end of the Mutt, and stayed behind it as it rotated, attempting to hit the girl.

"I'm running low!" He heard her say. He had to act fast.

"Just keep it busy for another moment, then get back!" Markus lifted his club, and darted around the monster, and swung at the creature's chest with his newly sharpened club, flesh falling in chucks.

"Damn, he's full of fat!" Markus cursed as he hacked away, the Mutt now focused on him, swinging the rusty blade at him, embedding it in his bag. Markus threw his bag off, tossing it into the dried up lake, and kept digging through the many layers of fat, trying to get to the heart. Finally the last layer of flesh was torn off, and Markus found a massive organ behind a ribcage, he went to swing the club once more, but the girl's cries of worry stopped him.

"Watch out!" Markus leapt back as the creature swung its claws at him, missing.

"Distract it again! I've found the weak spot!" He barked as she ran circles around the Mutt once more, but this time not firing her darts; there were plenty embedded into the Mutt already. Markus swung his club once more, and shattered the ribcage, bones impaling the organ, blood pouring out of it. He ran back as the creature collapsed to its knees, paralysed and gurgling. A soft hissing sound came from the Mutt, and Markus ran to the edge of the pit.

"It's gonna explode!"

They both jumped down into the crater as a loud popping sound rang out, green acid raining over the small alcove they were nestled in. They remained motionless for a moment, before Markus got out, and put his bag back on. He climbed back up, and found a pile of flesh and acid where the Mutt had once stood.

"Did we get it?" The girl asked cautiously.

"Yeah," Markus' face darkened into a twisted grin, "We did."

Without warning, he leapt down into the dried lake once more, and ran for the girl.

"What are you..."

"I said I'd give you ten seconds exactly to get away, yet you stayed. So it's game over kid." Markus grinned as he swung his club at her, catching her shoulder.

"No!" She fired a dart at him, but Markus dodged, and stopped a moment to catch his breath. She took this opportunity to climb out of the pit, and run for her life, vanishing from his sight.

"Damn it..." Markus swore as he made his way back to his allies, to tell them of the interesting events of the day, hoping that they hadn't died yet from their injuries. He was still annoyed that he let the girl get away, but she wouldn't live the next encounter, he was sure of that.

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna collapsed under a tree, her shoulder throbbing, and began to sob hysterically. She had nearly been killed, her arm and face burning from the acid. She heard a noise, and in fear, crawled into a bush, and drifted off to sleep.

She woke later that evenong, and climbed out of the bush. It was still fairly bright, so now should be a good time to escape that psycho before he went hunting for her. She left the trees, and found herself on a familiar road. It lead back to the mall area, where her alliance was based. She smiled at the thought, and turned down the road to find April, Aluma and Caera huddled over something. She quickly ran past the piles of flesh and acid that adorned the road, and joined them.

"What's happening?" She asked, and all three girls collectively hugged her.

"Oh, Alanna! Thank goodness you're alright!" Caera said, nearly in tears that Alanna was alive.

"Now, don't get so worked up. You didn't think I would have died, surely?"

Suddenly, she heard a groan, and saw Caleb on the floor, opening his eyes.

"Hey Caleb," she smiled warmly, "It's me, Alanna." Caleb's face contorted into a smile before collapsing once more.

"What happened?" Aluma asked as she passed Alanna some of the food.

"Well, I managed to kill a Mutt with the help of the psycho from 5," Alanna winced slightly as blood stained the makeshift bandage around her shoulder they had made using a couple of strips of fabric from Caleb's blanket. "Even if I barely escaped with my life." She chuckled slightly, before yawning loudly.

"You must be exhausted." Aluma said as she laid down.

"Yeah, I am." Alanna also crawled onto the floor, laying on her side as to not make the injury worse. She closed her eyes, and soon found herself falling into the welcoming clutches of sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna sat just outside of the barn that the alliance had relocated to, counting her remaining darts. Four.  
"Great..." She murmured. Fighting that abomination had really shortened her supplies. She needed darts, and fast. She stood up, and joined the rest of her alliance as she was handed a scrap of the meat that remained from their food supply. This wasn't going well at all. They were all running low on everything.  
"Sorry," April said, sounding deflated, "But we're all out of food."  
"What?" Everyone else but Alanna cried out. She walked out of the barn, and looked hard at the stretch of dirt that lay in front of her. Obscured by the buildings behind her, the empty bloodstained Cornucopia remained standing tall, looking out of place with its surroundings. Alanna paced, trying to figure out how to stay alive.

Meanwhile, in the pristine control room, the head Gamemaker was discussing with his fellow Gamemaker.  
"Are you sure sir? Stuff like this usually happens in the final eight. And there are more than eight tributes remaining."  
"Shut up; I know what I'm doing. Prepare the control, and pass me the microphone." Slightly disgruntled, the lesser ranking Gamemaker obeyed orders, and passed the microphone before slumping back to his seat, pressing a button. The head Gamemaker held the microphone close, and cleared his throat before turning it on.

Alanna was startled by the anthem playing without warning, but she guessed it was becoming a regular thing now.  
"Good morning tributes!" The head Gamemaker's cheerful voice bounced around the arena, "I hope you're all enjoying yourselves out there." Alanna nearly choked on her breath at that statement. How could anyone be enjoying themselves in a giant deathmatch? Seething with rage, she continued to listen to the rest of the announcement.  
"Because of the events that occurred yesterday, we have decided to be gracious Gamemakers," Alanna rolled her eyes at this statement. Because a gracious Gamemaker really set giant super Mutts on the weakened tributes.  
"You all have gifts for you at the cornucopia. some of you, they are from sponsors, others, they are gracious gifts from the Capitol themselves. Never the less, each of you will receive something...for a price." Alanna focused in once more on the catch of this reward. Knowing the Gamemakers, they would probably have to kill a giant clown using a feather to rupture its stomach before they can get the gifts.  
"All gifts are locked in a group of three black crates, and each one has a lock that will only go off if something specific happens. The clue to this event is in this riddle; 'The blood of a Brother will reveal what cannot be seen.'," Alanna tensed up as the words processed in her mind. That riddle could only mean one thing. That before the crates would open, someone would have to die.  
"I hope each of you can decipher this code because if not, this will be an interesting day. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour."

"Alanna!" Caleb cried out as the alliance approached Alanna. "The Cornucopia; we have gifts!"  
"Yeah," Alanna said the words forcefully, "But we'll have to solve some riddle first." She didn't mention that she had found out the answer, since there was a chance that one of her allies would sacrifice themselves, and she didn't want that happening just yet- there were still deadly opponents out there that needed to be taken out, and they wouldn't survive an attack if too many died.

As the golden shine of the Cornucopia became visible, Alanna noticed the three crates. She ran up to them, and noticed that they each had the names of the groups of tributes on them. Alanna focused on the middle crate, and read out the text.  
"For the Anti-Careers: April Holme, Caleb Hail, Aluma Cooke, Caera, and Alanna Pyre." She turned to face her allies. "Guys, I found our box!"

Without warning, a knife flew past Alanna's head, planting itself in the dry soil. She whipped her head around to see a pair of figures standing there, prepared to kill them.  
"Alanna!" Aluma snapped suddenly. "You try to open the box, and we'll fend these guys off!" She took off, heading towards the figures. A few seconds later, a cannon sounded out. Alanna tried to open the box, but it wouldn't budge. She then noticed the number on it, 2. Two tributes would have to die in order for the box to open. She fired a dart blindly in the direction of the attackers, and waited a moment, hearing the sound of her allies fight for their lives. Aluma suddenly joined Alanna, and they both sat staring at the box, until the second cannon fired, and the lid swung open.

Inside were five backpacks, with their names on them.  
"The box is open!" Caera, April and Caleb joined them, each taking their respective bag. Once they had equipped themselves, Aluma motioned east, and they took off, hoping to avoid any more conflict. But they were too slow.

A trident flew seemingly out of nowhere, impaling Caleb. His eyes widened, and he flew back. The cannon fired, and the others stood there in complete shock.  
"C-Caleb?" Aluma said weakly, before running over to his lifeless body.  
"Don't," April sobbed, "You heard the cannon. He's gone."  
"But that still leaves the question of where the trident came from." Alanna stated, looking around. It was obviously thrown by another tribute, but where was the best place to hide?

"We got him, Zayn!" The two tributes from District 8 leapt out from behind one of the crates, and rushed the Anti Careers. The girl brought out a long blade, and sliced Caera's arm, before pulling out the trident from Caleb's body.  
"Run!" April cried out, and fired an arrow at them before fleeing. Alanna and Aluma followed, whilst Caera reached over to pick up her scythe. Alanna stopped for a moment, and peered through the bushes, to see a red haired tribute rise slowly from behind a crate, coated in blood with a massive head wound. Caera turned around, and saw the undead monster advancing towards her, and ran into the treeline opposite her allies. Alanna turned away, and caught up with April and Aluma as they made their way to the blue floored mall area. A cannon sounded out, and the three of them froze, but continued again shortly after.

They arrived at the mall area, and hid inside one of the remaining buildings. Alanna sat at the door step, and rummaged through her bag, pleased at the contents. A full large bottle of fresh water, a handful of berries, and a small burlap sack, containing four sharp darts. She loaded the darts, and took a swig from her bottle, glad to be hydrated once more.

Markus Lucian:

Emily's groaning woke Markus up. Sighing, he walked over to her, as she rolled about restlessly. Something was eating away at her, internally and externally. After another few minutes of moaning, Markus slapped both her and Gryffon, waking them both up.  
"Get up, dead weights."  
"Bite me, psycho," Emily growled and got on her feet, rubbing her eyes. Emily helped Gryffon on his feet too, and the anthem sounded out.

"Good morning tributes!" The head Gamemaker's cheerful voice bounced around the arena, "I hope you're all enjoying yourselves out there." All three resisted the urge to laugh. If there ever was a time for fun, this wasn't it.  
"Because of the events that occurred yesterday, we have decided to be gracious Gamemakers," Markus raised an eyebrow. Something good, surely.  
"You all have gifts for you at the cornucopia. some of you, they are from sponsors, others, they are gracious gifts from the Capitol themselves. Never the less, each of you will receive something...for a price." They all exchanged a determined glance, before quickly making their way to the Cornucopia. Nobody else was there yet. Markus found a black crate, with a note attatched to it. Markus unfolded the paper and read aloud:  
"The blood of a Brother will reveal what cannot be seen . . ."  
Gryffon furrowed his brows. "The hell does that mean?"  
"I think," Emily started, her face devoid of colour, "I think someone has to die. . ." Markus took in this information, and smiled. Finally, some blood was going to be spilt.  
"So, who's it gonna be?" He looked over at Emily, who was beginning to shake slightly.

"Kill those annoying Anti-Career girls . . ." she said and dropped her bag. "Promise me, that you will."  
"Sure..." Gryffon said, somewhat confused.  
"One of us has to go . . . will you guys do the honor?" she sighed.

"Giving up already, Readhead?" Gryffon raised a brow.

"I'm tired as hell, Score Three . . ." she rolled her eyes. "You guys most likely will need your stuff more than I will," she snapped. "Just hurry up and kill me and get your damn prizes!"

Markus sighed. "Whatever you say," he rolled his eyes. None of them were ever close to one another. The day that they would have to go against each other was getting closer and they all knew not to be emotionally attached to any of them. They were all naturally detached people to begin with. He grabbed his club, and approached her slowly, unsure if she was serious. As if sensing his thoughts Emily nodded, and shut her eyes, embracing death.

Markus swung his club at her head, blood spilled on their box and threw her off her feet. Her head cracked against the box and dropped dead like a ton of bricks.

BOOM!

The cannon echoed throughout the arena. Just one less tribute to fight. They both backed away from her body as the crate opened. Markus lunged in, and grabbed his bag. It was large, and felt heavy. Gryffon picked his up, and the two stared at each other.  
"Listen, psycho," Gryffon sounded unsure, "I think it's time we split. The numbers are shrinking, and I don't want it to come down to us just sitting until we're the only ones left."  
"Fine, Score 3. I'll go." Markus said cooly. "But once we meet again, we're enemies. Got it?" Gryffon nodded, and the two went in seperate directions, Markus north, Gryffon south. And just like that, the Cold Killers had disbanded. About time too, Markus thought. Now he could get some killing done.

Finding an empty building, Markus took a moment to look at his gifts. First up was a large bottle full of fresh water. Next up were two roast turkeys, but the last thing was what got Markus to smile.

Sitting right there, in the bottom of his bag, was a crossbow, with five arrows. Grinning like a maniac, he picked it up, and loaded it. Watch out tributes, Markus was back in the game.


	10. Chapter 10

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna opened her eyes. She had fallen asleep on the doorstep after seeing the fallen for last night. First up was Caleb, which had caught her by surprise slightly, but she bottled the emotions up. At the end of the day, he was just another obstacle in her way of getting home. Next up was Caera, and that had been the last straw. Aluma and April had broken down, and hid away inside the building, leaving Alanna to see the final death; the girl from 10. One of the Cold Killers. Unfortunately, it hadn't been the psychotic boy from 5, and he was the biggest threat to her right now.

Alanna walked into the small room, and found April and Aluma eating the roast turkey from yesterday.

"Morning," Aluma smiled warmly, her face tear stained, "We saved some for you." April passed Alanna a handful of meat, and she sunk her teeth into it, savouring the rich flavour. Once all three had filled their stomachs, April spoke.

"So, what're we doing today?" Both Alanna and Aluma stared at her, confused, "I mean, now that there are fewer of us, why not try eliminate the competition a little?"

"What?!" Aluma exclaimed, "April, what's wrong with you?!" Tears began to form in her eyes, "We all promised when we met up for the first time that we'd only kill for self defense!" April just looked at Aluma darkly, before picking up her bag.

"Well, I think we should, so I'm going out to find some weaker players to kill, so that I can win."

"Hold up." Alanna stated, "Players? So this is suddenly a game to you? That way of thinking will only get you killed faster!" April just blanked Alanna, and ran out of the door, leaving Alanna and Aluma alone, with only their supplies, and half a roast turkey.

"She's really gone," Aluma wept, "The alliance is disbanding."

"It was bound to happen eventually." Alanna said, taking the turkey and putting it in her bag whilst Aluma was wracked by sobs. "Hey, at least we're not the only alliance that has fallen apart. The Cold Killers have lost a member too."

"Yeah," Aluma said weakly, "You're right."

Suddenly, the blare of trumpets made both girls rush outside to hear today's announcement.

"Good morning tributes!" The head Gamemaker cried out exuburantly, "That was a lovely show yesterday and we are proud to see that something actually happened after going so long with no deaths! And as you have probably guessed, a happy Gamemaker means happy tributes...to an extent." He laughed slightly, and Alanna and Aluma faced one another.

"What's wrong with him?" Alanna cried out, "Enjoying himself so much with this. When I get out of the arena, I'll personally make sure that next year he tones it down. It's really getting on my nerves."

They both paid attention as the head Gamemaker spoke once more.

"Also, I have some news! I have been keeping a slight secret from you all since we started the Games. Because this is the one hundredth games I wanted to spice up the Games this year and I had something special put into your tracking chips!" Both girls looked at each other, unsure what to make of the situation. Probably gonna tell us that they're gonna explode if we don't do some dangerous task or something, Alanna thought bitterly as the head Gamemaker carried on with his speech.

"I had decided long before the Games started to have the tracking chips installed with software that could force you as tributes to do one thing all at once. I originally didnt know what I was going to do with it or even use it at all, but i have come up with an idea:

Today, you will be fighting against another tribute against your will."

Alanna's face contorted to become one of shock. This was certainly unexpected, but she should have realised something along those lines was bound to happen eventually. But fighting against her will? The thought had never occured to her before. She could see that Aluma was also having a hard time digesting this information as well.

"You can still see, hear, taste, feel, and move on your own BUT! And this is a big but, you will face the tribute you are assigned. It is either you face them, or you die. It's as simple as that and seeing as all of you want to go home, you should have seen this coming one time or another." Aluma still had a face of pure shock, but Alanna found herself nodding along with every word. It was true, she was planning on killing eventually, she had just avoided it to reserve her strength, and it had worked. Whilst Aluma was staring dumbstruck at the floating seal, Alanna furtively consumed half of her healing berries.

"I have a few simple ground rules first though: there will be no killing your selves. If you try this, you will not succeed and we will make sure you stay alive...if your competitor hasn't killed you already. We understand this might be a bit heart breaking for some of you, but this is the Hunger Games, and only one of you can survive, so I hope you will have as much fun as I will." Aluma looked dead at Alanna, teary.  
"Alanna, what if we have to fight an ally?" Alanna listened intently to her ally's concerns. "Since I don't think I could kill any of you guys."

"Neither do I," Alanna lied, "Neither do I, Aluma."

"And now for the matchups!

The first matchup is Gryffon vs Zombie Emily. Now I know this may sound confusing, but you ex-ally should have gone to the trouble of ensuring that her body was thoroughly destroyed. And don't worry, she won't be like those Muttations from earlier, she will still behave exactly like her old self, to an extent.

Next up is Tavish vs Nova. How tragic! The two of you had just gotten on friendly terms with one another as well. Oh well, now we'll find out which of you is truly worthy of going home!

Then it's Markus vs Zayn. The clash of the big boys! But after the impressive way Markus has handled himself over the past week, I'd be careful if I were you, Zayn."

"Wait a minute..." Aluma looked harshly at Alanna, "There are only two more matchups left! What if we're..."

"Don't say that," Alanna snapped, "I'm sure we won't."

"Next up is Sarah vs April! This one will be an interesting fight, since neither girl has really shown what they can do yet; a fight that will be one to watch on the recap several times!"

"No..." Aluma began to shake. "It can't be... They wouldn't!" Another sobbing fit overcame her as Alanna listened to the final matchup be called out, dipping all her darts in the poison, covering them in a slick coating of the venom.

"And last but not least," Alanna put the nearly empty tub of poison back into her bag, and loaded the blowgun, aiming at her ally's head,

"Aluma vs. Alanna."

Alanna fired her dart, but Aluma ducked down, dodging.

"Alanna!" She cried out, "What are you doing?!"

"Sorry," Alanna's features darkened, the positive, friendly, charismatic little girl facade fading away, revealing her true self: A deceptive, manipulative killer, "But only one can live, and it'll be me." She fired another dart, the one that she had forgot to coat in poison, and it hit Aluma right on the thigh.

"Ow!" She yelped as she pulled out a several throwing knives. Alanna ran back as they flew from Aluma's hand, most of them missing. But the last one grazed her cheek, leaving a neat gash.

"You shouldn't have done that..." Alanna picked up the three throwing knives that now lay at her feet, and tossed them at Aluma. But Aluma anticipated it, and leapt to the floor, Alanna missing her target.

"We were friends, Alanna. We trusted one another!" Aluma desperately cried out as she pulled out her larger knife, and ran towards Alanna, pinning the smaller girl under her. "I thought that you cared..." She drew the knife, and lowered it hesitantly towards Alanna's neck. But her slight hesitation was enough time for Alanna to deliver a punch to Aluma's nose, blood gushing out. Alanna rolled out of Aluma's grasp, and leapt to her feet. She aimed her blowgun, and was about to fire, when a sharp pain rushed throughout her forearm. She looked as the throwing knife fell to the floor, a small shallow cut releasing a red shining sliver of a stream of blood from the incision. She looked back up to Aluma, who was advancing towards her. She threw herself at Alanna, but Alanna ran out of the way, Aluma crashing to the ground, screaming.

Alanna turned and ran, glancing back to see Aluma's knives flying towards her. She looked back, and found Aluma picking up the knives that had missed their target. She looked ahead, and just barely avoided running into a golden pole. She looked up, and saw that she was under a golden slope of sorts. Quickly, she jumped into the bushes that were growing there, hiding herself, training her blowgun at Aluma.

"Alanna, where did you go? We don't have to fight; they're making us!" Alanna aimed at Aluma's temple from her bush. "Please, I don't want to hurt you." She dropped a throwing knife to the floor, and Alanna fired the toxic dart. But Aluma saw it coming, and turned around, the dart sticking harmlessly in her bag. Alanna leapt out of the bush as another throwing knife flew towards her, and continued running southwards, Aluma following, crying at the thought of having to kill her ally.

Alanna stopped to catch her breath as she reached the glass doors of a large building. She shoved the doors open, cracking the glass, and ran through the large empty room, nimbly avoiding the overturned furniture. She reached a window at the end of the room, and kicked it with all her force, but it didn't budge.

"Double glazed..." Alanna said sharply as she turned around, and walked back through the room, failing to notice another presence.

Aluma leapt out from under an overturned sofa, slicing Alanna's thigh with her knife. Alanna let out a cry of pain, and Aluma's eyes instantly widened.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! How deep is it?" Aluma continued to apologise as Alanna grabbed her throat, the two of them falling to the floor, Aluma gasping for breath. But Alanna wasn't heavy enough, and Aluma threw the twelve year old off her with ease. Alanna crashed into a pile of cushions, and jumped back up, and fired another dart. It missed, and Alanna ran to the wall, and flipped the light switch, plunging everything into near total darkness.

"Try and hit me now, Aluma." Alanna said darkly as she edged along the wall.

"Where are you? I can't see anything! Turn the lights on!" Alanna found the door, and swung it open, and ran outside. But she had managed to find the back exit, and found herself cornered. Behind her and to her left was the building, to her right was the shimmering forcefield, and straight ahead was a lining of trees. Ahead it was then. Alanna darted forward, and climbed into the trees, crawling along the branches until she reached the other end.

She was in an oasis of sorts; surrounded by thick, lush and vibrant greenery, with a pool in the centre, topped up with water. Wait a moment. The water was drained a couple of days ago; something wasn't adding up. Alanna picked a pinecone from a tree, and threw it into the 'water'. It fell right to the floor, no splash. Curiously, Alanna placed a hand into the pool. It was a hologram, the water wasn't really there. She could use this as a trap. Alanna walked around the edge of the pool, and climbed into a thick tree, completely concealed by the leaves, and waited. She began to think about home. How once she won, she'd be able to get her parents into rehabilitation with their morphling addiction. And Zach; she'd be able to see her two year old brother once more. They'd never have to worry about starving again, or illness, or anything. She sighed in content as she lost herself to the fantasy, drifting off for a moment.

BOOM

The sudden sound of the cannon caused Alanna to jerk awake, falling out of her tree, landing on her feet. Someone had just died. Hopefully it was Aluma. No, it couldn't have been. Each tribute can only kill their selected matchup today. Alanna took a mouthful of her water, and a leg of the turkey, and sat under a tree. The sound of rustling hit her ears, and Alanna leapt up as a figure emerged from the foliage, sobbing. Aluma.

"I'm so sorry. I don't want to do this." She whimpered as she threw a knife, striking the tree just above Alanna. Alanna ran into the open, and fired her blowgun, the poisoned dart hitting Aluma's leg. Aluma fell to the floor with the pain, but forced herself up.

"So it's come to this, huh," She let out a low chuckle, "You know, I always pictured my life or death battle in the arena to be with either a Career or a Muttation," She paused, shuddering, "Not some little girl that managed to successfully deceive us all." Alanna readied another dart, and Aluma sprinted at full pace, punching Alanna in the stomach, knocking the air out of her. Alanna wheezed loudly as Aluma began to draw the crimson stained blade across her cheek. Alanna breathed through the pain. Wait. Breathed! She drew in all her breath, and spat in Aluma's eyes, temporarily blinding the crazed girl. Alanna grabbed the fallen knife, and cut the straps on Aluma's backpack, the bag falling to the floor. Whilst Aluma tried to regain her vision, Alanna shot another dart, striking the girl's chest.

Aluma fell back with the force of the shot, into the pool. She opened her eyes as she saw the blue liquid surface ready to greet her. Her features relaxed slightly, assuming that she was going to land with a splash. How wrong she was.

Alanna heard the sharp squeal, then a thud, and saw Aluma crumpled in a heap at the bottom of the four metre deep pool, her arm twisted in an impossible angle. Alanna grabbed one of the stray throwing knives, and threw it into the pool, impaling Aluma's throat. Blood poured from her mouth and her body went into spasms as the poison overtook her system. Finally, her eyes glossed over, and the cannon sounded, and Alanna picked up the bag, and retreated into the treeline, leaving the corpse of the girl from District 9 at the bottom of the once pure white pool, floating in a puddle of her own blood.

Alanna climbed a tree, and stayed at the top branch, and watched as the hovercraft picked up the mangled remains of Aluma. Alanna showed no emotion as her former ally vanished from the world forever, all she saw was one less player for her to compete against in this game. One step closer to winning.

Markus Lucian:

Markus stalked the massive drained lake, searching for his opponent. He was assigned the task of killing the boy from 8, a fairly easy task, if he knew where the hell he was hiding. Markus hated that. Tributes that hid instead of accepting their fate. It only unnecessarily wasted precious energy and time. He spotted movement from the other side of the drained body of water, and crept around slowly, loading his crossbow.

"Sarah, where are you going?!" Markus moved behind a tree, leaving their potential range of vision. He watched as the smaller of the two figures, female from the looks of it, ran towards the mall area.

"Sorry Zayn, but I have to do this!" Zayn. Markus flashed back to that morning's announcement.

"Then it's Markus vs Zayn. The clash of the big boys!" The only clue was that this Zayn character was large. But he must have had some sort of skill, otherwise he'd be dead already. Markus walked out of the cover of the tree, towards the unsuspecting tribute, and began to laugh. At least he wasn't Score 3; he had to fight a zombified Rehead. Markus covered his mouth to stop the sound of his laughter giving away his position to his still oblivious opponent.

He froze as the boy from 8 suddenly moved- away from him. He climbed the massive golden slope, and grabbed something from up there. Markus quickly ran in closer to see what this boy was going to use against him. Suddenly, the boy jumped off the top of the platform, and slid down the slope, landing safely at the bottom, and charged at Markus with a trident. Markus simply stepped out of the way, and grinned widely. This was going to be fun.

"Stay still," The boy huffed, "I won't let you live!"

"And why's that?" Markus sidestepped another charge from the boy.

"You've already killed too many people... I won't let you kill my Sarah!" Suddenly filled with determination, the boy ran at full speed towards Markus, who simply walked out of the way. Because of the momentum, the trident stuck itself in the ground, and the boy face planted into the ground.

"Oh, I didn't know!" Markus pressed his hands to his face in false surprise, "If I'd have known you were trying to play the big strong knight in shining armour for your little girlfriend, I would have left you alone! After all," He paused, watching as the blood boiled under the other boy's face, "What would happen if your little Sarah had no Zayney Wayney to protect her?"

"Shut up!" The boy was close to combusting with the pent up fury. Markus continued to smile widely as he toyed with his prey.

"Oh, that's right. She'd be dead."

"No! Sarah is a strong, independant young woman, and I will defend her until my dying breath!"

"Calm yourself now, we don't want you getting your panties in a bunch now do we?" Markus chuckled, "Or maybe they're actually Sarah's, wrapped around your-"

"Don't you dare mouth off Sarah!" The boy feebly punched Markus in the gut, doing nothing to the psychopath.

"Oh, wow," Markus beamed once more, "You're actually more fun than Redhead was. Too bad I had to blast her brains out once she became no fun." Markus pouted, and lifted his crossbow.

"And to be honest, you're boring me quite quickly."

Seeing the weapon being aimed at him, the other boy's eyes grew wide, and he fled, his flimsy trident in one hand.

"Where you going?" Markus called after him. "To try and protect little Sarah from big bad Markus?" He pursued his prey, crossbow ready to kill. "Don't make me laugh!"

"You," The boy stopped suddenly, and posed his trident, lining it up with Markus' heart. One throw would kill him. "You sick, twisted monster. I will end you!" He launched the trident, and it flew towards Markus, prepared to take his life. At the last moment, Markus dropped to the floor, feigning injury.

"Damn you!" He cried out, pretenting to groan and roll around in pain. After a few seconds of moaning, Markus went still.

"I-I did it! Sarah, you're safe once more." A small grin slyly slid onto Markus' mouth. A low chuckle escaped his lips.

"Nice try," His eyes shot open, and he aimed his crossbow at the boy's heart. He leapt up, and pressed the trigger. "But game's over." The bolt released, hitting the boy's chest, sending him flying into a nearby tent. The cannon fired, and Markus retrieved the precious ammunition. He reloaded his crossbow, and returned to the golden slope. He sat on top, and watched as two more fighting tributes passed below him.

"Alanna, where did you go? We don't have to fight; they're making us!" He watched curiously as the two girls threw knives and darts at one another, eventually running for the building labeled Florida Centre, according to his map. He stood up, and saw the young girl from 6 push the other girl into a pool, but she sank like a rock. A few moments later, he saw the girl from 6 throw a knife, and the cannon sounded. This was interesting. A passive weakling that was actually a murderer in disguise. If she had been like this from the start, then she might have had a place in the Cold Killers, and may have wiped out more enemies. But she chose the passive route, and remained dormant. Until now. Markus made a mental note to himself that if he ever was to attack this girl, that he should be on extremely high alert.

BOOM

Another cannon sounded, meaning another tribute lost their fight. Markus sat down, holding his crossbow close, and pulled out a roast turkey, eating the legs. He took a couple of sips of the water, and put his meal back, and closed his eyes, ready for the next day.


	11. Chapter 11

Alanna Pyre:

Four left. That was it. Only four tributes remained. The boy from Ten, the girl from Eight, the psycho from Five, and herself.

"Not long now Alanna." She smiled darkly as she played with one of Aluma's throwing knives. The gullible fool never stood a chance. None of them did. They were all too concerned about friendships and other petty matters to realise that Alanna had been killing them off slowly in a subtle manner. Even going as far back as training, Alanna was preparing for dealing with allies. The weapons she chose were all weapons that would kill quickly and quietly; the knives, which she could throw from long distances, and slit someone's throat in their sleep; the rope, which could serve several purposes, choking being the main one, and finally, the blowgun. That was the key point in the Games. She had seen it in previous Games, and knew that they could instantly kill anyone if they were coated in poison. So when she found out Caleb had the poison, it was stupidly easy to obtain once she offered some pointless trade for a lock pick.

She had also withdrawn the poison cure from Caleb and Caera as well, in the hope that it would be their undoing. And it had been, for Caleb at least. But he had held on for too long, even surviving the strongman Muttation that Alanna had deliberately caused to explode on her alliance. She had also stayed away from her allies during the super Mutt attack, hoping that they would have died. But they survived, so she decided to return to them, to try poisoning them over the next few days. She hadn't counted on the feast doing the killing for her though. Caleb and Caera both died within a few minutes of one another. Too bad it wasn't one of the stronger members, like Aluma or April, but it still eliminated the competition. And after yesterday, all of her allies had been eliminated.

She hopped out of the tree, and loaded her blowgun, looking around for any signs of danger. None so far. She walked around the blood stained pool, remembering the battle from yesterday. Aluma put up a good fight, but she let her emotions get in the way of the battle, and that was her downfall. Alanna picked up another throwing knife that lay on the floor, and added it to the belt of throwing knives that she retrieved from Aluma's corpse. She now had a large range of weaponry at her disposal; a few small throwing knives; a regular knife; and her blowgun. The other tributes wouldn't know what hit them.

Suddenly, she heard a rustling coming from the trees that surrounded her. Alanna held one of the throwing knives, and approached the sound. As she approached the tree line, a sharp hissing emitted from a nearby bush, and a thin stream of fire burst upwards, setting the closest tree ablaze. A small figure flew out of the bush, and hovered around above Alanna. It looked like a squirrel, but much larger, and with the ability to fly and breathe fire. It sent a fireball down towards Alanna, and it caught the sleeve of her jacket, the red flames licking up the fabric. She dropped to the floor, and rolled around, putting the fire out before it reached her skin, leaving a singed hole in her jacket.

The squirrel dive-bombed Alanna, aiming its tail at her heart. She ducked, and fired a poisoned dart at the Mutt. It began to convulse in the sky, and dropped to the floor, the dart protruding from its chest.

"Serves you right." Alanna told the carcass as she pulled the dart out, a fountain of blood gushing from the small creature. The appearance of the Mutt could only mean one thing; this area wasn't safe anymore. Alanna reloaded her gun, and climbed through the trees, in the opposite direction of the blaze. She leapt out of the greenery, and took in her surroundings.

She was close to what looked like a run down housing area. The perfect place to find a tribute. Alanna quietly snuck through the miniature town, noticing that people made out of straw stood upright near each house, attatched to a pole to keep upright. Alanna had seen these things somewhere before, but she couldn't place her finger on it.

"Now these," The teacher said to the young class, "Are scarecrows. We use them to protect our morphling plant fields, so that we can grow as much medicine as possible." Alanna stared blankly as her class teacher lectured them on the importance of scarecrows, and how they keep away common vermin, like mockingjays.

"Excuse me." A small voice piped up, and Alanna looked over to see one of the girls asking a question.

"Yes, Lillie?" The teacher replied warmly.

"Well, I um..." She paused for a moment, unsure of what she was about to tell her teacher, and continued, "Are the scarecrows alive?"

"Don't worry Lillie, they're like statues made of straw. They can't hurt you. They just look scary to keep the birds away."

"Good, because I don't want them to hurt me."

The resurfacing of the memory filled Alanna with confidence. They were just statues made of straw, designed to look scary. Suddenly hungry, she sat down under one, its large form blocking out the sunlight. She pulled out the turkey, and took a strip off, savouring the taste. At least she wouldn't have to worry about starving for a few days at least. She pulled out her water, and took another few sips. There was only enough water in there for another two days, even if she rationed it very well. She put her consumables back in her bag, and put her bag back on.

Suddenly, sunlight streamed onto Alanna's face. She looked up. This was odd. No, it couldn't have. Alanna looked at the scarecrow, and found it looking down at her, with a sadistic grin on its face, holding a deadly scythe. She let out a scream, and scrambled to her feet, running from the scarecrow as it leapt off its pole, and staggered towards her. No, no, no! They weren't supposed to be able to harm her! Her teacher lied to her! Suddenly filled with panic, Alanna pulled out a throwing knife, and launched it at the scarecrow's neck. The head slid clean off, and it slumped to the floor.

Alanna quickly retrieved the throwing knife, and began to back away from the lifeless Mutt. But it began to stir. She watched in horror as it stood up, and placed its head back onto its body, still flashing that creepy smile. It couldn't die; it was going to kill her.

"Get away from me!" She yelled as she turned and ran from the Mutt. It suddenly sprang to life, and caught up with her, swinging the scythe furiously. Suddenly, a strange cloud covered Alanna's face, and she inhaled the foul smelling gas. Choking, she fell to the floor, her vision blurring for a moment. She shook her head, and stood up again, prepared to take on the Mutt. Only she wasn't staring into the eyes of the scarecrow any more, she was looking into the eyes of Caera.

"No!" Alanna cried out as her dead ally advanced towards her, holding the scythe. This was impossible. Caera was dead. She had been for two days. The announcement earlier that morning had stated that the bodies of all the dead tributes, minus the zombies, had been successfully returned to their familes. There was no way on earth that she could be there. But she was. She charged at Alanna, swinging the scythe, catching her bag, causing the healing berries to fall out of the hole. Alanna leapt to the floor, and clenched them in her hand, before shoving them in her mouth, swallowing them. A newly found energy flowed through her, and Alanna leapt to her feet, feeling energised enough to take Caera on. She pulled out her knife, and sliced at Caera's leg, the limb falling off, blood pouring from the wound. Caera stumbled slightly, and Alanna backed off from her.

But the limb re-attached itself, the blood vanishing from sight. Caera could re-generate like the scarecrow could. But Alanna noticed that it took a few seconds for the limbs to attach themselves again. Using this, she could disarm her. She ran in close to Caera, and sliced her arm clean off, the scythe clattering to the floor. Alanna rushed to grab the weapon, and ripped it out of the grasp of the dead limb. She held the weapon, and watched as Caera fixed herself once more. Alanna swung the scythe, the weight of it setting her aim off slightly, and blew Caera's torso off her body. Quickly, she hacked the legs into small pieces, and ran as the body parts reconnected.

Alanna stopped as she reached a dried up river, and looked around for a way to get across. She soon found a bridge, and ran along it, running right past a rat. Alanna heard the squeak, and jumped back as it darted straight for her. Defensively, she held the scythe out, but the rodent simply bit the sharp end clean off with its powerful teeth. Alanna stared at her now useless weapon, and pulled her knife out as the Mutt finished eating the scythe. She sunk the blade into the creature's back, and heard the air deflate from its lungs as she punctured them. She pulled the knife out of the rat, and saw Caera sauntering towards her.

Alanna stood her ground as the nightmarish tribute approached her. She waited until Caera was close enough, and rammed into her, pushing her off the bridge, and into the small valley caused by the drained water. Alanna heard Caera hit the floor with a satisfying thud. But Caera simply stood up again, and began to climb the edge of the pit, quickly reaching the top.

"It didn't work..." Alanna stated in disbelief. Nothing was working. But there had to be some way to defeat her.

A small whisp of smoke blew by Alanna's head, and she looked to see the area where she killed Aluma had gone up in flames. Wait a minute. If Caera burned up in the flames, she wouldn't be able to regenarate! Alanna pulled her blowgun close, and ran towards the inferno, Caera in pursuit. Alanna stopped as the flames spat out at her, the embers blackening the grass surrounding the area. She glanced behind her to see Caera charging at her. Alanna sidestepped, and tripped Caera, who fell into the blaze, the flaming tongues of heat encompassing her, pulling her into the heated core. Alanna watched as Caera began to disintegrate into nothingnesss as the fire consumed the fallen tribute. Alanna's vision blurred once more, and she looked back at the fire to see the smiling face of the scarecrow blacken and fall apart.

It was a hallucination. Caera was never there; that explained why she could take so many hits. Alanna sat down on the floor, exhausted, but forced herself to get up. The fire was spreading along the grass, and it wouldn't be long until it burned the entire area to the ground. Alanna walked away from the fire, and walked north. She walked past two white domes, one crawling with the squirrels, and the other, rats. A squirrel ran towards her, and she threw a knife at it, killing the creature instantly. She picked it up, and noticed that it didn't have any of the features that the previous squirrels had. So there were regular versions of the Mutts as well. She passed the domes, and walked under the massive golden slide, killing another rat. The place was swarming with the creatures. She emerged from the slide, and walked into the mall area, the place bathed in the golden glow of the evening sun.

Alanna passed the destroyed tents, memories flying by. She remembered first coming there with Caleb back on the day of the bloodbath, then once more when the clowns attacked. She passed the tent, the poisonous red liquid still pooled inside, a rusty knife snapped in half floating on the surface. She walked down the street that their alliance was stationed for the most part of the Games, and where she abandoned them when the Strongman Mutt invaded the area. She found herself smiling warmly at the memories, as if they were cherished childhood experiences. Alanna found the tent where the alliance had spent their last day together, and entered.

Inside, she found a bag, with a district emblem on it. She approached it, and recognised the emblem. District 12. April had left her bag there when she left to fight Sarah, but never returned. Alanna opened it, and pulled out the contents- half a bottle of water, a roast chicken, and a handful of healing berries. Alanna placed them back in the bag, and transferred the contents of her own bag into the less beaten up bag. Once she completed that, she sat in the corner of the room, and took out some of April's chicken. She ate it, and drank some more water, before hearing a faint bleeping noise.

She looked out of the window, and saw a silver parachute flying down- a sponsor gift. Alanna's face contorted with glee as the parachute floated through the open door. She eagerly picked it up, and unwrapped it to get to the gift. It was a small canister, with a large label.

"Mutt-Away. One use only. Effects last twelve hours. Does not deter other tributes." She read out loud, and spotted several shapes flying in the sky; the squirrels were on the hunt for blood. Alanna pressed down on the canister, and a sterile smelling gas clouded out, filling the room. Alanna looked out at the squirrels, and saw them flying elsewhere. Once they had left her sight, she shut the door and windows, and curled up in a ball, falling asleep.

Markus Lucian:

The sound of the anthem playing forced Markus awake. He looked to the sky as the seal appeared, and the head Gamemaker began to speak.

"Good morning tributes, after yesterday's death match, there are now only four of you. Four possible tributes are that much closer to winning this year's Hunger Games." Markus blinked slowly as he took in the information. Only four left. That meant he had a twenty five percent chance of winning. A dark smile crept onto his face as the Gamemaker continued his speech.

"But let's not forget those who lost their lives yesterday so quickly, shall we?" Markus took a sip of his water as he waited for the fallen to be listed.

"First up on our list of perished tributes is Gryffon Sauntor." So Score Three didn't survive Redhead's undead remains. At least that was one less deadly competitor to worry about. "However, since he was slaughtered by our undead friend Emily, Gryffon now joins her in wandering the arena in search of their next meal." Well, that was unexpected. "However, we will tell you if they're going to attack you, starting from tomorrow."

"Next up on our list is Nova," Markus raised his eyebrows in confusion. Wasn't she against a twelve year old that would have been easily overpowered? "Who allowed herself to die after her morals got in the way of fighting. Let this be a lesson, tributes- In the arena, you should never carry your heart on your sleeve." Nova never struck him as being morally right, but what did it matter, she was no longer a threat to him.

"Next up is Zayn Pent," Oh yes, the hopeless romantic, "Who, after an eternity of taunts and insults, finally bit the bullet. Or crossbow bolt, in this case. Perhaps if he wasn't too concerned about his ally, he might still be alive today." Markus sniggered. They were implying that waste of space could ever overpower him. It was impossible. Markus was smarter and stronger than him.

"Then we have Aluma Cooke," Markus remembered her as being overly concerned about friendship and other sentimental crap. And look what it brought her; death, "Who perished at the hands of her former ally. This came as quite a shock, but it turns out her killer was hiding their true colours throughout the Games- until now. And this brings us another lesson; don't underestimate anyone. Since who knows what they have hiding under the surface." If he remembered correctly, her killer was that twelve year old from 6, the dangerous one that helped him out with the super Mutt whilst his allies just rolled about, waiting for death.

"And finally, we have April Holme," Another member of that alliance full of boring pacifists, "Who met a rather gruesome end after a dramatic battle with her opponent. And even though she fought valiantly, she was still met with death. Remember this, tributes; trying's worth nothing if you don't succeed." Markus found himself nodding with that message. Redhead and Score Three tried their best, but they failed, and have been degraded to nothing more than disposable Muttations with familiar faces.

"And also, being the kind hosts we are, we have decided to reward you for the most entertaining show you put on yesterday," A reward? This was already looking like a good day, "You have all been healed significantly overnight. Now let's hope we keep up the good work, and may the odds be ever in your favour." The anthem played once more, and the seal faded.

Markus ate a wing of his turkey, and stood up, club in one hand, crossbow in the other. He packed his bag up, and slid down the slide, landing neatly at the bottom. Four tributes left. Only three more would have to die before Markus could come home. He quickly ran through his head, identifying who remained. Besides himself, the little boy from 10, the girl from 8, and the now somewhat deadly girl from 6. All would be easy to take out; a shot to the chest, and boom. They would all be dead, and Markus would come home. He walked north, constantly looking around for other tributes to slaughter.

Suddenly, an intense pain filled his right leg, and Markus looked down to see a rat firmly clamped down on his leg. He tried to shake it off, but it had a vice like grip. It dug down harder, and the pain became nearly overbearing. He pulled out his crossbow, and fired at the rodent. It exploded in a mass of flesh, and the force of the weapon launched Markus back slightly. He walked over to the pile of mess, and retrieved the bolt. The end had become blunt, but the sheer force of it should still deal some major damage.

Markus carried on, limping slightly as he tried to ignore the pain. After a while, the pain became too much, and Markus sat down on a bench near a sign marked 'Kiddy Land'. He rolled up his pants, and saw the deep incision. It had cut to the bone, but hadn't gone through, luckily. The next thing he noticed was the stream of blood flowing from it, the crimson fluid staining the sand. He ripped the other sleeve of his shirt off, and wrapped it around his leg, in an attempt to stem the blood flow. After a few minutes, the blood had begun to clot. Now to hope that the rats weren't poisonous.

Markus got back up, gritting his teeth as he continued onwards, looking around for any signs of life. Suddenly, a column of flames spiralled downwards from above him, and a large squirrel began to fly around, circling him. Markus readied his club, and swung as the Mutt drew close. The spikes impaled the creature in several location, and blood began to flow from its mouth as it died still attatched to his club. Markus shook it off, and turned away from the area, leaving before any more Mutts would show up.

He continued through the northern midway of the arena, taking in the eerie silence, save for the occasional squeak of the rodents.

"Damn place must be swarming with them..." Markus grumbled as another squirrel scampered by him. Wasting no time, he grabbed it, and wrung its neck before throwing it to the floor.

Without warning, a scythe swung at Markus, slicing the fabric of his shirt at the side, but not penetrating flesh. He swung around to find a person made entirely of straw, standing at about seven feet tall, with a sadistic smile etched onto its face. Markus backed away from the new foe, and readied his crossbow, and fired as the Mutt spewed a vile smelling gas from its head. The force of the bolt ripped a hole through the centre of the monster, leaving a gaping hole in its chest. As it stumbled from the force of the blow, Markus retrieved his bolt, and took aim again, only to find that he was now in the streets of his district once more, and facing the head Peacekeeper, who he had killed before the reapings were even held. He held the scythe, and charged at Markus.

Markus ran, not looking back. It was as if he had been sent back six months, and was reliving the moment when he was branded a killer. He turned down the street, passing by a building that closely resembled his school. He wasn't far from the spot where he had killed the man now. He turned sharply right, barely avoiding running into the barbed wire fence that surrounded one of the powerplants, but the head Peacekeeper kept going, and ran right through the metal. That wasn't right. No, this was an illusion, or for a better word, a hallucination. Probably brought on by the gas emitted by the Mutt. But still, he would kill this Muttation the same way he killed the Peacekeeper. He turned down the next street, crushing a rat under his boot, a soft, squelching sound reaching his ears. Markus left bloody footprints as he turned left, arriving on the street near his house.

Markus ran to the front door of his house, and surprisingly it opened, the Peacekeeper catching up to him. He shut the door, and ran upstairs, to the landing, and lay in wait. The door was cut open by the scythe, and the Peacekeeper entered, running up the stairs towards him.

Markus swung his club, sending the Peacekeeper flying down the stairs, and crashing into a vase, the porcelain object shattering all over him. Markus darted to the knocked out Peacekeeper, and ripped the scythe from his hand, and began to tear all the limbs off, dicing them, pools of blood everywhere. He then grabbed the chunks of flesh, and threw half of them in the toilet nearby, and the other half outside, the breeze carrying them away. Finally, he snapped the scythe in half, and passed out, drained.

When he came to, Markus was no longer in District 5. He was in a massive building, with a sign that read 'Entertainment Hall'. He stood up, and found himself covered in straw, and saw a broken scythe on the floor, a shiny liquid dripping from the blade. He staggered up the stairs, and found a bathroom. One of the toilet cubicles was ever so slightly open. He fully pushed the door open, and found the blood stained smiling head of the scarecrow grinning at him. Markus slammed the door shut, and backed out, continuing upstairs. He finally reached the highest possible floor, and found a wooden hatch in the roof. He pulled it open, and climbed into the attic, shutting the hatch behind him. He walked over to the window, and watched as the squirrels set the trees on fire from high up in the sky, the sun nearly fully gone from the horizon. Markus ate some more turkey, and drank a little more of his water, and lay down, ready to rest.


	12. Chapter 12

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna slowly drifted back into consciousness. Her eyes opened, and she sat up, a searing pain shooting through her arm. The flesh was slightly singed, and pink. The squirrel had done more damage than she had hoped for. At least it wasn't her throwing arm. She pulled out one of the chickens, and ate half of it, filling her shrunken stomach. She then necked half of one of the two bottles of water, and stood up.

The anthem began to play once more, and Alanna stepped outside of the building she was resting in, to see the seal appearing in the early morning sunlight. Throughout the arena, she could see clouds of smoke soaring high above in the sky.

"Good morning tributes!" The head Gamemaker's voice boomed throughout the arena yet again. Alanna prepared for the news; if any.

"You all fought brilliantly against yesterday's Muttations, but one of you perished." Alanna didn't care about that right now, all she wanted to know was if there were any more dangers to watch out for.

"The unfortunate tribute that met his demise was young Tavish." She guessed that the kid wouldn't last long on his own. "Who after fighting a long, hard battle, was devoured by the Mutts as he slept. His body has been transferred to his district, so we don't have to worry about another zombie added to the playing field for now." Of course they wouldn't add any more zombies; there were only three of them left.

"But that isn't all tributes, as we've now released a very special Muttation into the arena, a personal favourite of mine; the fire ghoul!" Brilliant, Alanna thought sourly, another charming Mutt for her to try and kill. "A creature made purely of fire, it can change its form at will. Be warned, though, that it has destructive capabilities that surpass the squirrels'. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour." The anthem blared out once more, and silence descended on the arena.

Three left. That was it. A one in three chance of going home. Alanna couldn't stop the wide grin that leapt onto her face as the reality set in. She would probably go home, but then she thought of her competition. There was the girl from 8, that brutally tore April apart. Alanna knew nothing of this girl, except that she was obviously a skilled killer. The poisoned darts would be the best bet. And then there was the boy from 5. She had seen how he operated, and after yesterday, he somehow managed to get a hold of a crossbow. He was smart, deadly, and confident. But perhaps too confident. When they fought the super Mutt, it was as if he was expecting her to die. So he was caught by surprise when she lived. The best way to deal with him would be to shoot several poisoned darts at him, and outlive him the best she could.

Suddenly, a loud explosion sounded out from behind her, and Alanna turned to see that the building she was in had burst into flames. She saw something dancing almost whimsically in the flames, and the shape leapt out from the inferno, taking the form of a small elf like creature. It smiled mischievously, its dark orange eyes fixated on Alanna. She took a dart, and fired it at the creature, but it passed right through, the dart burning up. Of course, it was made entirely of fire- darts wouldn't work. She would have to kill it like she would extinguishing a fire; cut off its oxygen supply.

Alanna ran down the grey road, through the lining of palm trees that obscured the sunlight. The fire creature changed form, becoming an arrow, and shot after her. But the trees stopped it momentarily. They were so clean, so pure. So flammable. Hungrily, the creature once again became a formless blaze, darting along the tree tops, devouring the fresh green leaves. It fired a ball of flames at Alanna, barely missing her as it became a burning mockingjay, flying after her.

Alanna reached a massive crater in the road, where the Super Mutt for her allies had exploded, a massive puddle of acid filling it to the brim. She skidded to a halt, a plan forming in her mind. She opened her bag, and pulled out one of the two bottles of water; the half empty one. The Mutt flew above her head, sending flames spiralling downwards towards her. It caught the end of her hair, and it burned it to half the length. She'd have time to worry about her appearance when she got home, not now. She opened the bottle, and squeezed on it, a thin jet of water hitting the beast. It let out an unearthly moan as the liquid touched it. The water seemed to be like corrosive acid to it, so what would happen if it fell into the actual acid.

Using the water, Alanna guided the creature downwards towards the surface of the acid. Using the last of the bottle's water, she poured it all onto the creature at once, and it fell into the acid, a small cloud of smoke floating out.

Alanna sat down, panting. That Mutt was hard to beat. Good thing she didn't get caught in any of the fire. She looked around to see several fires burning uncontrollably around the arena, a thick cloud of smoke slowly forming in the sky. The mall area was now nearly burnt to a crisp, save for one or two buildings, and the street she was on. She pulled out the second bottle, and gulped a couple of mouthfuls down, dehydrated from the Mutt. She put the water back, and looked at the world's reflection in the green puddle of acid, shapes slowly swaying as the slight breeze disturbed the acid. A shape in the reflection moved, and a low, unearthly growl sounded out.

Alanna whipped her head around to see a figure ambling towards her, clutching a staff, its head caked in dry blood. It was the undead remains of the girl from 10. Alanna stood up, and loaded her blowgun. She was aware of how deadly this girl was. She had devoured her own ally, for cying out loud. If Alanna missed her shot here... the consequences would be unbearable. The zombie rushed her, and jabbed into Alanna's thigh with her staff. Blood instantly began to flow, and the undead tribute eagerly lapped the blood off the staff, curling her tongue around the shaft expertly. Alanna realised that the zombie was showing an opening. She pulled her knife out, and went to strike, but the zombie was quicker, jabbing her burned arm with the staff, reopening an old wound. Once again, she licked the red fluid off the staff, but Alanna was ready this time. She sprinted forward with all the strength she could muster, and brought her knife down on the rotting tongue just as it began to retreat into its owner's mouth, slicing it clean off, the limb falling to the floor. In response, the girl bit down on Alanna's forearm, penetrating right to the bone. Alanna kicked the zombie's leg, causing her to faulter slightly, and freed her arm from the zombie's grasp. A lot of blood was flowing, but that was to be concerned about once she had evaded this monster's grasp.

Alanna put her blowgun away; it wasn't going to be useful against this creature, and ducked down as the undead tribute lunged at her. But the zombie aimed a kick at Alanna's stomach, hitting with such force that Alanna instantly vomited up the contents of her stomach all over her assailant's leg. She jumped up, and backed away as the staff flew towards her once more, striking her shoulder, and she darted out of the staff's grasp before blood was drawn once more. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she desperately searched for some way out. There was no way that she could take this girl on in straight up combat, and she couldn't hide up a ferris wheel like the last time she encountered a zombie. Alanna ran further down the street as the zombie rapidly advanced, moving away from the crater that was caused by the super Mutt's acid explosion.

Wait a minute, the acid! Even if she was undead, there was no way that the girl from 10 would be able to survive falling into a pool of acid. Alanna dropped to the floor, and clutched her knife as the zombie towered over her, and lowered the staff into Alanna's shoulder, to finish the job it had started. Alanna took a sharp breath as the skin was punctured, and swung her knife at the girl's hand, applying as much pressure as she could muster. Whether it was due to the zombie's state of decomposition, or whether it was just plain luck, the red haired tribute's fingers were cut off, the staff dropping. Alanna clutched the staff, pulling it out of her wound, and rolled out of the way as the zombie went in to munch on her jugular. Alanna rapidly scrambled to her feet, and sprinted towards the crater, the undead Emily rapidly following her. Alanna screamed in agony as Emily sunk her teeth into her back, and kicked Emily's leg in an attempt to get her off. She did, and Alanna ran faster, beginning to feel faint from her energy depleting, eventually getting as close to the crater as possible. She hit the floor, rolling too fast for her liking, and stopped just before falling into the deadly substance. She held the staff out, tripping Emily, causing her to fall into the acid, taking the staff with her. The undead tribute sank like a rock, but the staff stayed afloat for just a moment, before dissolving into nothingness. There was no earthly way that Emily would be able to get her now.

Alanna's body was wracked with sudden intense agony as the adrenaline wore off. Her leg was in agony, her arm was throbbing, her puncture wounds were stinging, and her back was bleeding profusely. Alanna quickly pulled her jacket off, and used her knife to tear it into several strips. She wrapped the first around her arm, ignoring the burn as best she could, the next around her leg, and the final ones around her torso. She stood up, her body protesting, and hobbled down the street, turned the corner, and walked through a thin lining of trees before she found a small orange ferris wheel. She climbed in, and pressed a button inside the cart, the machine moving slowly upwards, taking her skyward. It stopped when it reached its pinnacle, and Alanna surveyed the arena from above. The mall area, the stables, and the south eastern part of the arena were all burning to the ground, but the fires appeared to be dying out. She looked down at the puddle where Emily had perished, and noticed the boy from 5 aiming his crossbow at the pool. She watched in horror as the zombie emerged from the acid, and stumbled towards him. He fired, and she fell to the floor. He then used his club to completely bash her skull in. Alanna sank to the bottom of the cart, grateful that she had escaped with her life.

Her injuries began to throb, and she suddenly remembered the healing berries. She grabbed all of them, and shoved the sweet berries into her mouth, the juice bursting with flavour. Her pain instantly began to die down, and she drank a little more water, before laying back, drifting off to sleep, hoping that she would wake to see tomorrow.

Markus Lucian:

Markus opened his eyes as the voice of the head Gamemaker acted as his alarm for the umpteenth time this week.

"...a personal favourite of mine; the fire ghoul!" Markus widened his eyes in surprise. That did not sound good at all, "A creature made purely of fire, it can change its form at will. Be warned, though, that it has destructive capabilities that surpass the squirrels'. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour." The melodic notes of the anthem played out, and all went silent once more. Markus stood up, and his leg began to sting with pain. It was the same one that the rat had bitten. Just wonderful, the easiest to kill of the Mutts had screwed him over the worst. He rolled up his pants, and unwrapped the blood stained makeshift bandage. The wound had begun to heal, but the flesh surrounding it was discoloured.

"Damn it, infection." Markus cursed as he stared at the green skin. It looked like a disease he had once heard of back home; gangrene. He had at most four days before his leg would have to be amputated.

"Hope I'll have won the Games by then." He said to himself as he stood on the leg, the intense agony dulling to a strange, cold ache. He pulled out his water, taking a few more sips, and pulled a leg off his chicken, eating it as he opened the hatch in the floor that lead to the rest of the building.

Markus crept out of the attic of the entertainment centre, searching cautiously for any more rodents. But it appeared they had all vanished in the night, much to his relief. He finished off the leg of chicken he was holding, and tossed the bone away, and held his club close. He swung open the doors, and stood outside, looking around for today's danger. The announcement had said it was a Muttation made of fire, so his conventional weapons wouldn't work against it. He walked over to the edge of the drained lake, and to his surprise, found it had been saturated, small puddles forming here and there. It wasn't drinking water, but it could definitely be used to fight the Mutt.

He looked back at the massive building, and watched as it burst into flames, a serpent slithering out of the smoking doors, its red eyes glaring at Markus.

"Speak of the devil..." He muttered, and readied himself to take on the newest challenge. The Mutt charged at him, and Markus leapt out of the way as it took to the sky as it made contact with the moist ground. It changed its form to that of a large bird, its red eyes still the same size, still glaring at him. It swooped down, searing his back, but not landing on the wet floor, instead flying back up as it changed to a large tracker jacker. Markus noted that its beady red eyes never changed shape or size at all. That had to mean something.

It dive bombed him, and Markus ran from the Muttation, towards the small town area. He stopped for a moment, to catch his breath, and watched as several houses erupted in flames, the Mutt jumping from roof to roof, burning the place down, releasing a massive cloud of smoke floating upwards. It hopped onto the floor, and changed form to that of a large dog. It charged at him, sinking its fangs into his arm, burning it severely.

"Screw you!" He yelled at the creature as it let go of him. He pulled out his club, and swung it hard at the creature, making contact with the eyes. One of them cracked, and the Mutt evaporated, the other eye falling to the floor, a red hot coal. His arm and back burned badly, and he looked at his arm. The flesh was pink and raw, blisters forming.

"Damn it." He groaned as he staggered away from the burning village, stopping under a shining dome. His body hurt like hell; if another tribute came by, he'd be done for. Shakily, he pulled out his water, and poured a drop onto his arm. The cool liquid sizzled and steamed as it made contact with the roasted flesh. The burn was too severe for water to work.

Suddenly, a soft beeping sound caught his attention, and Markus watched as a silver parachute floated gently into his lap. About freaking time someone sponsored him. He unwrapped the gift, and found a small vial of medicine, labeled 'Burn heal. Cures all burns. One use'. He opened the vial, and consumed the liquid, his arm and back instantly cooling down.

"Thank god for that." He opened the next gift, an aerosol can with the label 'Mutt Away. Lasts twelve hours. One use'. He put that in his bag; the spray would come in handy during close range combat to blind his opponent. He drank some more, and got up, throwing the parachute into the fire, disposing any evidence he was there.

He continued through the burned down mall area, many of the tents now reduced to smoldering wreckages, except for one street, oddly. He passed a large crater filled with a bubbling green liquid; the acid from the super Mutt. Suddenly, a hand shot out, and a groaning figure emerged; Emily.

"Damn, Redhead," Markus said as he prepared his crossbow, "I should have blasted your brains in when I had the chance." She threw herself at him, and he fired, knocking her back into a nearby building. He then pulled out his club, and walked over to the slowly rising zombie. He raised his club, and swung it down hard on her skull, making a visible dent. He swung again, and broke the skull. Emily fell down, blood and brain oozing from her skull. The rotting tribute was finally dead for real. Markus pulled the bolt out of her chest, and walked away, leaving the festering corpse to rot.

He opened the door to the nearest building, and entered, closing it as the sun began to set. One door was closed ominously. He opened it, and a red fluid flowed towards him, ankle deep in blood. Markus entered the disgusting smelling room, and found a body floating on the surface. It was one of the clown Mutts, with one eyeball deflated, flies crowding around the monster, feeding on the carcass. Markus backed out, and shut the door, moving upstairs, leaving a trail of bloody footprints on the lush carpet. He reached the top, and entered a small room. He looked out of the window as the sun began to vanish behind the horizon, and ate the second leg of his chicken and drank some more, drifting off to sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna's eyes refused to shut. Her body ached all over. She sat up, and a wave of nausea took over. She held her head to stop the spinning, but it didn't stop. It was cold. Very cold. Alanna zipped her jacket up, and looked out of her cart. It was pitch black; not even midnight, but very close. A scent hit her nostrils, and she began to salivate at the aroma of fresh blood. Her eyes grew wide as she realised that she was craving blood.

"No!" Alanna cried out weakly. She felt extremely hungry, and dehydrated, despite the fact that she had gorged herself a few hours previously. She pulled out her chicken and water, and began to eat. But it wasn't filling at all; in fact, it felt like a foreign substance in her stomach. Maybe if it had some delicious, tangy blood with its metallic taste, and the way it ran down her throat. Alanna slapped herself. What was happening to her? Then it dawned on her. The zombie from earlier had coated its staff in infectious saliva, and stabbed her multiple times. She was badly infected, the zombie virus rushing through her bloodstream. Alanna was going to become a zombie, and prey on the remaining tributes' flesh, devouring it ravenously like a primal monster; a Muttation. Then another thought occured to her. Even if she managed to kill the others, she wouldn't be allowed to win, due to the fact she was already dead. And the Capitol would probably have a ball watching the young tribute eat the remaining competitors. And Alanna wasn't going to give them the satisfaction.

She stood up, everything in agony, and kicked open the cart door. She put her bag on, and stood on the edge, gazing down at the floor below. It was a good sixty foot drop to the floor.

"I'm so sorry that I couldn't come home, Zach." She choked, salty tears dripping off her face, falling down to the grey floor, exploding into a million transparent glistening shards. Alanna swallowed hard, and stepped off. Everything seemed to slow down as the cart became smaller, the wind whipping past her falling figure. She was sure that a camera must be watching her, so she lifted her hand up, and flipped her middle finger at the camera, showing that she was refusing to play this game on anyone's terms but her own. Then she hit the floor head first, the small girl's skull shattering, blood flying everywhere. The rest of her body hit with a sickening crack, and the cannon fired, one less tribute to worry about.

Markus Lucian:

The sun streaming into the small room woke Markus up. He rubbed his eyes, and stood up, almost not seeing the sponsor parachute on the floor. He looked at it in surprise, and opened it up. He found a full bottle of water, and a large strip of bacon. Markus had to stop himself from devouring the mouth watering meat right there and then. He packed both items up, and put his bag on. He walked down the stairs, through the puddle of blood, and out of the door.

Markus gasped loudly as he saw the small body on the floor, laying in a pool of blood that was flowing from her head. It was the girl from 6, still wearing her equipment. She must have perished in the early hours of the morning. The hovercraft hadn't arrived yet, and she was still wearing her equipment. Unable to resist the temptation, Markus stripped the dead girl of her weapons, and her bag. He put the throwing knives around his belt, and fully loaded the blowgun. He opened her bag, and found two chickens, a bottle of water, and a nearly empty tub of poison. Markus closed the girl's eyes, and walked down the road to a large silver building, lined with shattered windows. He sat down in the shade of the building, the slightly outwards pointing roof obscuring the sun from the orange walls, the paint chipped and cracked from several years of dereliction.

The anthem boomed out, and Markus dropped the blowgun in surprise. It was still alright.

"Thank god..." He muttered as he listened to what the head Gamemaker had to say.

"Ah, good morning tributes! Now before we go any further, I must congratulate our two brave warriors, Markus Lucian from District 5 and Sarah Myers from District 8, for making the final two in the arena!" A wide smile split Markus' face as the message replayed in his head. The final showdown was today. By tomorrow, he'd be out of the arena, and ready for the victory celebrations.

"And to mark the occasion of having the final two tributes, we have a very special prize on top of the Cornucopia for whoever gets there first!" Markus stood up, and began to jog in the direction of the golden horn. "The prize is in a box, and is extremely special because the contents will bend to whatever the receiver wishes, be it medicine, a weapon, or anything else you could possibly desire!" This was too good. Far too good. Markus ran through the smoldering remains of the mall tents.

"But that isn't the only surprise, tributes!" Markus slowed down. What else could they add? It was the final two, and it was an unspoken rule that the last death must be at the hands of the victor, as it made for good entertainment. "Because of the wonderful performance of you two, the bodies of the zombies, Emily and Gryffon, have been successfully returned home," Thank god. Redhead and Score Three had overstayed their welcome by a long shot. "But there is another tribute waiting in the wings to kill you. She is currently safe with us, but is turning fast, and nobody will know who she will attack first." Perfect. Another tribute that should have been buried deep in the ground of their district would be roaming the arena soon. But not if Markus ended it quickly.

"And it doesn't end there, tributes! There is also a Mutt that is guarding the prize that resides on the Cornucopia, and he is simply adorable!" Wonderful. Why couldn't they make it a simple fight to the death, without all these added complications? "The members of the public have taken to naming him Titus, which I'm sure you'll understand the meaning if you have watched the previous Games." Titus. The original psychotic cannibal of the Hunger Games. He was like a mixture of Markus, Score Three and Redhead thrown into one body. But since he was still alive when he devoured the tributes' major organs, he wasn't deemed suitable victor material, and they instead gave the crown to the socially awkward, introverted boy from 2 that essentially just hiked around the perimeter of the arena for the fifteen days that the Games went on for, whilst Titus was a fighter. He should have won, even if his methods were unorthodox for the time.

"Titus is a one foot tall wolf Mutt, with a weight of two tonnes. His largest weapon is his mane, which fires thousands of spikes at whoever decides to approach him. The inside of his mouth is closer to a shark's than a wolf's though, and is lined with row upon row of razor sharp teeth, so watch out for that." Markus walked past the blackened skeletal remains of a barn as the information was thrown at him.

"In addition to all of this, Titus doesn't see like a normal Mutt would either," Markus listened intently as he passed by a falling rafter, that exploded into a pile of ash as it hit the floor, the wind blowing away the black dust, "His vision is reliant on heat, but don't think that you can take advantage of that; he has an extremely powerful sense of smell, which will be nearly impossible to mask on your own." Markus pulled out the Mutt Away, and held it close. He would be able to use this to throw the Mutt off.

"Good luck, and I hope to see the victor very soon." The final notes of the anthem strained out, and silence fell onto the arena. But this silence was different from the others. It almost felt as if the air was thick with the presence of death.

"Ignore it," Markus told himself as he placed the aerosol into his belt, "It's just a bunch of strangers that you didn't know at all."

Markus walked past several barren, black trees, until he came across a massive hole in the ground.

"The lake..." He said quietly as he followed the outline of the once large body of water. This place held so many memories of his time in the arena; it almost felt like a second home to him. Here was where he met up with Score Three.

_Gryffon_, he corrected himself. Gryffon Sauntor of District One. And Redhead, better known as Emily. Emily Horwitz. His allies. Key members of the Cold Killer alliance. The three tributes with the highest chance of winning. Two of them dead. If it weren't for Markus, those two would have probably been the last two left, not him and Sarah. A wry smile crossed his features. This was the girl that Zayn was willing to protect until his dying breath. There were only two explanations as to how she was still in the Games. Either she was secretly a powerhouse, or Zayn's death had driven her insane. Markus hoped it was the latter; crazy was easier to kill than powerful.

Markus hopped around the pool of acid that had gathered by the lake side, where he took down the super Mutt alongside that small kid. She had died in the early hours of the morning. He wondered which way fate had decided to off her. She seemed intelligent, and strong willed, which meant that she either lost in a fight against a larger opponent, or commited suicide. Markus stopped himself as he realised he was reminiscing about people that wanted him dead. What was happening to him? These people didn't matter to him at all, so why were they so prominent in his head? Markus swung his club at a tree in frustration, splitting the charred bark in half.

An arrow suddenly flew past Markus' head, slamming into another tree close by. Another followed, this time landing just short of him. He looked to see Sarah standing on top of a incinerated building, holding the girl from 12's bow closely, a katana attatched to her belt. Markus leapt out of the way as another arrow shot down at him, this time hitting where he had just been standing. He pulled out his crossbow, and took aim. He fired, but Sarah leapt off the building, the powerful bolt leaving a hole in the building. Sarah emerged from the trees, this time clenching her katana. Markus fired another bolt at her, but she leapt out of the way, but not fast enough. It skimmed her thigh, and she faultered slightly.

"Zayn, he hit me! Now what?!" Markus stood there, confused as Sarah frantically looked to the sky. Definitely insane. Without warning, she charged at him, slicing his shoulder with her katana.

"Damn you, bitch!" He roared. Crazy or not, she needed to be taken down. He slung his crossbow over his back, and pulled out his club, the trusty weapon feeling like an old friend in his powerful arms. He pulled his arms back, and swung hard, catching Sarah in the stomach. She let out a twisted squeal, and punched him in the face, before looking around. She bolted towards the treeline, heading north. But what could...?

The prize! She was going to get it first, and use it to win. Markus quickly put his club away, and pulled out the blowgun, and took off after the mad tribute. She expertly weaved through the maze of soot and ash, Markus falling behind. She turned suddenly, and Markus lost her. He stepped forward, and was met with the golden shine of the Cornucopia. He heard a deep, primal howl, and Markus retreated back into the unprotective treeline, and pulled out the Mutt Away. In all the excitement, he had forgotten about Titus. He pressed the can, and a sterile fog encompassed him, becoming absorbed by his flesh, sending his shoulder wound into a blazing fit of agony. Markus gripped his teeth, and put the empty canister back. It could come in hand later, you never knew with the Gamemakers.

Quietly, Markus stepped towards the Cornucopia, his crossbow in hand, but Titus was nowhere to be found. He made his way to the golden horn, and saw a massive shining crate sitting on the top, reflecting the sunlight brightly. Suddenly, a needle flew past his hand, and Markus turned behind him to find Sarah running from a small wolf. Both of his opponents were running right into him. Markus sprinted away from the mouth, and ran around the back of the Cornucopia, searching for some way to get up there to the prize that would be his ticket out of there. But before he could, something ran into him, sending him flying. Markus looked up, his head spinning, to find Titus staring him down. The damn Mutt Away hadn't worked!

Markus desperately scrambled to his feet, loading his crossbow. The Mutt leapt at him, exposing its chest as it flipped mid air, and Markus fired. The bold penetrated deep into the creature's chest, sending it off its course. It landed, still alive, then collapsed on the floor, the bolt sticking out of its stomach. To be sure it wasn't going to pull an Emily or a Gryffon, Markus pulled out his club, and proceeded to bring it down on the dying creature's skull, not stopping until all that remained was a bloody stump. Markus panted, and wiped the sweat off his brow as he switched back to the crossbow, and approached the gaping golden mouth that once held a rich bounty of treasure. But he didn't find Sarah in there like he expected. Instead, he found a broken bow in a pool of blood. A cry of pain sounded out, and Markus darted outside. Sarah was going for the crate!

Markus fired one of his two remaining bolts at her, and she fell off the Cornucopia before she could open the box. She landed on the floor, and stood back up, grabbing her katana.

"How dare you," She muttered as she ambled towards him, "How dare you try and stop me and Zayn from winning!" Sarah suddenly broke into a sprint, knocking Markus to the floor. He struggled to move as she let out a sadistic laugh.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" He yelled as she moved her hand to get her katana out.

"Be quiet! Zayn told me that I will fight and win! And I will!" She closed her fingers around the blade, and Markus stuck his own hand out, grabbing the girl's wrist. He squeezed hard, and he felt the bones shatter as she let out a guttural scream. He then shoved her off him, and he stood up.

"Hate to break it to you, but your precious Zayn's dead." Markus said, laughing slightly.

"Liar! He's with me now, giving me strength to win!" Sarah retaliated, pulling her katana out with her good hand.

"Sorry, but you're mistaken, honey," Markus taunted, "I killed him a couple of days ago. You know, he was deluded too." He pulled his club out, "He though that he could save you. I bet that he's rolling in his grave right now, you know." Sarah cried out, a raw and powerful cry, and rushed him. But Markus was expecting this. He turned, and ran. She was emotionally weak, like Zayn, but she had some strength. He was going to have to exhaust her. Markus ran around the perimeter of the launch area, leaping over the tribute platforms, Sarah following with determination. Markus suddenly stopped, and stuck his leg out, causing Sarah to trip. But she clung onto him as she fell, her sharp nails digging into his forearm. She looked a complete mess, spikes were sticking out of her everywhere, her hair was matted, and her face was coated in blood. Markus lifted his arm, knocking his opponent off of him. But she immediately leapt to her feet, and knocked Markus' club out of his arm, the weapon falling to the floor.

"Congratulations!" He clapped as he dodged her blows, "You disarmed me!" Markus pulled out his crossbow, loading it with the final bolt.

"But I have more than one weapon, sweetheart."

The bolt flew from the crossbow, sending Sarah flying across the field, landing in a slump. But no cannon fired.

"How the hell?" Markus exclaimed as he picked up his club, and placed it in his bag. He didn't want to lose it. He also put his crossbow away; both weapons were useless. He pulled out one of the three knives, and held it in his hand. Sarah jumped up, the bolt sticking out of her stomach, preventing her from bleeding out. He threw the knife, the small weapon grazing Sarah's shoulder, but not doing much else. She swung her katana out, and sliced Markus' knee. A searing pain shot through the injury as blood began to flow out, but Markus ignored it, too driven by adrenaline to be bothered. He threw the second knife, this time stabbing Sarah's foot, but she continued to chase him, looking like a human pincushion with all of the weapons sticking out of her body. Markus turned, and stabbed his remaining knife into Sarah's chest, but missed penetrating anything major. Taking advantage of his temporary weaponless state, Sarah lifted her knee, and delivered the limb right into Markus' crotch. Tears pricked his eyes as he doubled over, the sheer agony causing him to vomit everywhere. Sarah rushed him again, and he barely avoided her as he ran away from the dangerous girl. He was running low on weapons, he had no knives or crossbow bolts, and his club would be useless in these fighting conditions; Sarah was too fast. That left the blowgun. He reached for the bag of darts, but found that there was a massive tear in the bag, the ammunition strewn across the field after falling out. There was only one dart left in the bag. He picked it up, and inserted it into the blowgun. Markus turned to fire, but noticed that Sarah had left his vision.

He crept around the corner of the horn, looking for her, but stood on a dart, a dark liquid covering his boot. Poison. His eyes widened as he remembered the substance, and pulled it out of his bag. He smothered the remaining dart with the liquid, and shoved it into the gun. Sarah suddenly leapt out of the mouth, and tackled Markus to the floor, snapping the blowgun in half.

"Look Zayn, I'm going to kill him! Aren't you happy?" Sarah's eyes were wide with shock and fear, the pupils massive. She had completely lost it. She wrapped her hands around Markus' broad neck with surprising strength, and began to choke the life out of him. Markus tried to gasp for air, but found that he couldn't. She was going to win. He looked down, and saw the broken blowgun still in his hand. Useless. But then he noticed the tip of the dart sticking out. He grabbed the broken weapon, his head beginning to spin, and safely deposited the dart into his hand. He blacked out for a moment as Sarah giggled wildly. He had to do it now. He lifted the dart with the last of his strength, and rammed it into Sarah's damaged wrist. He saw the black poison rush through her veins, and he became weak, on the verge of suffocating. He could feel his eyes beginning to roll over in his head.

"Zayn, he's nearly dead! I've done i-" Sarah's triumphant cries were silenced as she let go of Markus' throat, and grabbed her own, shuddering. Markus took in the well deserved oxygen, and watched as Sarah shook rapidly, her entire body going into a massive spasm. Her feral eyes glazed over, and she collapsed to the floor, followed by the sound of her cannon.

He had done it. Markus had killed her. He had won the Hunger Games! He stood up, a massive grin showing on his face.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Panem, gaze upon your new victor, me, Markus Lucian!" He punched the air with triumph, before the pain in his leg caused him to fall to the floor. He pulled out the crossbow bolt from Sarah's chest, a fountain of blood gushing out, and looked over at the Cornucopia. He needed to get to the box, or he'd be dead by the time the hovercraft arrived to take him home. Markus staggered across the blood stained field, and found indents on the side of the magnificent golden horn. He used them to climb up to the top of the Cornucopia, and pulled open the box. Inside was a large bottle labeled 'Full Heal', and Markus pulled it out, before necking the sweet liquid, the creamy fluid flowing down his throat. His pain immediately dulled down, until it was non-existant. He threw the bottle to the floor, the glass shattering everywhere.

Then something occured to him. There hadn't been an announcement stating that he had won. Maybe they were just running behind, he thought as he sat down, his legs dangling off the edge of the Cornucopia. He waited, and waited, and waited, but nothing happened. Where was the celebration? Was there somebody else? No, everyone was dead. Markus was the only living being in the arena. Wasn't he? He looked around, a chill running through his body. Something wasn't right here. He jumped off the Cornucopia, and crept around the launch zone. He was met with a heavy silence; not even the occasional buzz of an insect reached his ears. The arena was completely empty.

Markus walked away from the golden horn, and headed north, walking past several burned buildings as the sun dipped below the horizon. Why hadn't the Capitol picked him up yet? Markus set his eyes upon an area of undamaged buildings, and wandered towards them. Had he done something wrong? No, he had been the last tribute alive. That was the point of the Hunger Games, to keep on killing until nothing remained for you to kill. The sun had now completely vanished, and the arena was plunged into darkness. Markus reached the door of a red building, and pushed it open, feeling like he was intruding. Inside he found a large plush sofa, similar to the one inside the justice building back home. He sat down, and pulled out his bacon. He devoured the delicious meat, and drank half of the water from the sponsor-given bottle. Now that he was full, Markus got comfortable, and sat down on the sofa, waiting for the anthem to play, to let him know he was the victor. But nothing came, and Markus eventually lost the battle to remain awake, slipping into the depths of unconsciousness.


	14. Chapter 14

Alanna Pyre:

_I'm sorry, Zach._

_Hey, someone get the reconstruction gel, pronto!_

_You see, we have decided to give her, a second chance, if you will._

_Damn it, you forgot that the venom would run through her body faster due to her small size!_

_But that isn't all, tributes! We have another tribute waiting in the wings, prepared to kill. So watch out!_

_Sir, we've found a way to keep her sentience!_

_Excellent; we want the audience to know that she was the perfect choice for this._

_Okay, Sarah's body is in the hovercraft._

_Not now, he's still too close. Let him get the healing potion first. He'll need it._

_Ready? Launch in three... Two... One... Now! _

The various voices flew through Alanna's memory as the soft shine of the early sunlight came into view. Her now grey eyes fluttered open, the soft breeze rustling the grass below. The voices confused her; they were foreign, but ingrained into her mind. She sat up, her pale arm reflecting the golden sheen of the Cornucopia. Her head felt dulled, and her body was numb. She tried to comprehend the situation, but only one thought entered her mind; a simple question.

Why was she here?

Alanna shakily got to her feet, and looked at herself. Her skin was pure white, and chilling to touch, and her wounds were exposed, but no blood was coming out. Then it hit her. She was dead, but alive. They had made her into a zombie, like the girl from 10 and the boy from 1. An undead monster, designed to thin the numbers. But how many were left? She had leapt from the ferris wheel during the final three; had the final battle not yet occurred? Alanna staggered slightly, leaning on an open black crate for support. It was bloodstained. No, the final battle had definitely occurred.

Suddenly, Alanna slipped off the horn, and fell to the floor. But she felt no pain from the drop. Alanna stood back up, as if she had been on the floor all along. She reached her hand back for her blowgun, and...

Oh, that was right. She had lost it when she decided to end her life. Which meant the remaining tribute had it, along with her food and water. Almost expecting to feel hungry, Alanna was surprised when her stomach did nothing at the thought of food. So she couldn't feel pain at all now. Letting out a confused sigh, Alanna wandered around the bloodstained dirt field, finding several small blades in the dirt. Aluma's throwing knives. Alanna picked them up, and placed them in her belt with surprising speed. A surge of power rushed through her as she touched the cold steel that was now equally as cold as her body temperature. She could use these knives to win. Alanna stopped herself right there. No she couldn't. She was a zombie now; an undead Muttation, and has a Mutt ever won the Hunger Games? She didn't think so. This depressing fact hit Alanna like a ton of bricks, and could feel the tears forming.

But as soon as the emotion came, it vanished. So she was incapable of feeling anything. Alanna was on the verge of finding the puddle of acid to end her non-existance when the deep pounding of the anthem revertabrated throughout the arena.

"Good morning! Now before we go ANY further, I HAVE to congratulate Markus Lucian for making it this far!" So the last tribute was the psycho. Brilliant. "You have proved yourself to be fearless, courageous, strong, and just downright vicious!" Alanna could almost picture the egotistical grin on his face. Oh how she'd like to wipe it right off, along with several layers of flesh. "We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You have put on an absolutely FAB-U-LOUS performance! But you're not out of the woods yet; we have one last challenge for you to face!" Alanna's colourless lips formed a smile as she finally realised her purpose. But the smile faded as she reminded herself that she was nothing but a simple Mutt now.

"I'm sure you remember the tribute we mentioned last time, the one in the hovercraft? Well, it's time to reveal their identity! Your final opponent is none other than a zombified Alanna!" So that's where the voices came from. They were busy making her into the fan favourite's final opponent. "She is every bit of Alanna, plus some!" Alanna listened as best she could. This was the perfect time to find out what heinous alterations they had made to her in the past twenty four hours.

"She cannot feel pain at all, and has a deep urge to kill you, with the strength to back the craving." The head Gamemaker rattled on, Alanna's dead face remaining stoic. What did it matter? She was as disposable as Emily and Gryffon had been. "But, here's the catch. If you are overpowered by Alanna, she will be crowned the victor, and the Capitol will restore her to her former self, to the best of their ability." Alanna's eyes widened in shock and joy. They had essentially given her a second chance at victory. And she wasn't going to miss the opportunity.

"I wish the best of luck to you Markus, and to you too Alanna, if you are still aware enough to understand this message, and may the best tribute win. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour." It took all of Alanna's will power to not explode in joy there and then. She was restored to life, and placed back in the arena. Someone, somewhere obviously wanted her to win, and not Markus. Alanna gleefully walked out of the launch zone, with a goal in mind; kill Markus, and get the hell out of there. She became so absorbed in the task at hand that she nearly tripped on the cracked weapon that lay before her. A katana, coated in blood and sticking through a mangled blowgun, both laying near an empty backpack. Acting on a base instinct, Alanna picked up the bag, putting it on, and placed the damaged blowgun in her bag. She then bent down once more, and picked up the katana, taking in the aroma of Markus' blood. It smelled so powerful, it would be wonderful to see him choke in a pool of it.

Katana in hand, Alanna walked through the black trunks that once were known as trees, searching for the last obstacle in this game; the Cold Killer from District Five. She emerged from the blackened greenery near a crater. The scent of Markus' blood was extremely potent here; he had obviously been in this area many times during the course of the Games. But he wasn't there now. Alanna walked past a green oozing puddle, and a distant feeling memory floated to the surface of her brain of the super Mutt, and how she worked with the very boy she was set on killing to defeat it. He had nearly killed her as well, but only failed due to under estimating Alanna's speed. Well, now she was three times as powerful as back then, and he wouldn't know what hit him when she finally found him. After checking the area once more, Alanna left the drained lake, following the scent of Markus' blood east.

Alanna swiftly ran through the various burned up fields, as the overpowering fragrance of blood lead her to a row of buildings. Alanna was so absorbed in finding Markus, that she didn't see the supporting pole for the Ferris wheel, running right into it. Thank goodness she couldn't feel pain right now, else that might have knocked her unconscious. She then expertly ran up the street, to where the smell of blood was strongest. She stopped when she found it; a pool of blood next to a crater full of acid. Alanna's heart sank as she realised that she had honed in on her own blood. She internally chastised herself for making such a stupid mistake, and continued north, noting that she didn't feel fatigued in the slightest.

She wandered through the slightly smoke stained northern section of the arena, the once colourful tents now barely showing anything other than the dull, dark blackness that seemed to consume the life out of everything. Not so different from herself, Alanna thought darkly. She continued past a small Ferris wheel, the very form of the circular fun ride triggering memories of the past. Caleb, and how they both spent the second night cooped up in one. Alanna shook her head, and clutched the katana close; the blade still ice cold. Now wasn't the time to go over events that occurred several days ago.

Alanna looked up at the mid-day sun, that was shining down on the arena, heating everything except for the undead tribute. She didn't even feel the heat touch her body. This continued to serve as a constant reminder that Alanna wasn't alive at all. But that didn't matter; she would kill Markus, and get out of the arena. And with her added strength, this was going to be an extremely easy battle. She grinned, but only for a moment. Her sensitive nose had picked up the scent of Markus' blood, and he was close. Alanna lifted the katana, and ran with inhuman speed past burning buildings and rotting frames, stopping just outside of a circle of houses. Markus was in one of them. She lifted her katana, and stepped towards the first house.

Markus Lucian:

"Damn this Quarter Quell!" Markus cursed as he ate the last of his chicken, "Why couldn't you just have me win yesterday, instead of making me battle with some kid that was infected by Redhead!" The words flew out of his mouth, and dripped onto his club like venom. He was furious. Victory was his, and they had to go and throw in a surprise game changer.

"No, calm down. It'll be no different from Redhead." He told himself as he loaded his crossbow. All this kid was was just another Muttation for him to kill.

"Yeah, a Mutt that could become a victor instead of me!" Markus furiously necked his water, and stood up, getting off the rich sofa that had been his bed for the previous evening. At least it was a step up from laying under a tree, exposed to the somewhat chilling night air.

Markus' internal fury was cut short by a long, silver blade stabbing through the door of the house he was residing in. The damn kid had found him, and it was barely mid-day at the latest. Markus aimed his crossbow at the door as the blade moved, slicing through the wood like it was nothing. After a vertical gash had appeared in the door, the blade vanished, and a loud kicking sound sounded out. This wasn't good at all. Markus obivously was not dealing with the same girl he had worked with to kill the super Mutt a few days back. No, he was dealing with a monster in a child's body.

Dust and splinters filled the air as the door burst down, and Markus looked in surprise as the petit girl from 6 stood there, deathly pale, her icy blue eyes now grey and cloudy. In her hand she held a long, sharp blade, that Markus instantly recognised as Sarah's katana. The girl locked her eyes on him, and they glazed over, shutting away whatever was in control before, leaving a killing machine in its wake. She ran right at him, and Markus leapt out of the way, but not before she could slice his back. He let out a cry of pain as he faced the girl; her face smiling at the sight of his blood. Markus pulled out his club, and swung at the smaller opponent, hitting her in the torso, sending her flying into the back wall of the house. He grabbed his bag, and ran out. But Alanna didn't stay down. She leapt right back up, not bothered by the attack. She looked out of the window; her prey was getting away.

Markus sprinted down the grey road, sweat streaming down his face, blood pouring from his wound. That girl was crazily strong, and he could only hope that the blow from the club had slowed her down. He glanced behind him, and saw Alanna catching up to him remarkably quickly. Markus hit the floor, and swung at the girl's kneecaps, knocking her to the floor. She remained motionless for a moment, and Markus noticed the lack of blood from the injuries he had dealt. He switched to his crossbow, and aimed at her skull, prepared to take her out in one shot. He fired, and she stuck her hand out, actually catching the bolt in her had. She leapt up, and snapped the last of Markus' ammunition in half, rendering it useless. She pulled out a knife, and stabbed Markus in the leg, slowly slicing the blade downwards, staining the small weapon a deep red. Markus jumped back, and rammed the crossbow into her gut, knocking her over. He abandoned the weapon, and darted towards the burned barn.

Markus rammed open the doors, and slammed them shut once he was safely inside. It was dark inside, faint beams of sunlight shining down from cracks in the roof. Perhaps a tribute had died here. Markus slapped his head as he thought about the dead tributes again. They didn't matter; they were just less skilled players in the game. An intense pain filled Markus' lower back, and he turned as the doors swung open. He quickly retreated into the shadows as the young girl vigilantly searched the derelict building. As long as he remained silent, he would be fine...

But he was horribly wrong. A throwing knife fell from above, grazing Markus' shoulder, and he leapt out from his hiding place to see the undead kid advancing towards him. Markus suddenly realised that for the first time, he was choosing flight over fight.

"I don't know what the hell's wrong with me, kid," Markus said to the uncomprehending zombie, "But all I do know is that I'm going to enjoy beating the crap out of you." He tightened his grip around his club, and ran out of the barn, heading towards the Cornucopia; the final battlefield. He dodged the throwing knives as he ran across the field, not daring to look back until he was ready to deliver the finishing blow.

Both tributes approached the burned up treeline, and Markus began step one of his plan. He ran straight through the trees, Alanna keeping up with his movements perfectly. Then he turned right without warning, and Alanna ran right into the tree, but carried on. That was right; she couldn't feel pain.

"Damn it!" Markus cried out as he exited the treeline, returning to the bloodstained field that this all started on. Twenty four tributes started out here, and the twenty four tributes' fights would end here. He turned, and swung his club at Alanna, catching her arm, causing the katana to fly out of her grip. She was now disarmed. Alanna shot a hand down, grabbing a knife. She shoved the bladed weapon into Markus' chest as he slammed his club into her leg. She remained where she was, slowly driving the knife in deeper, and Markus rammed harder. Eventually, blood trickled out of the wound, and Alanna stumbled to the floor.

"About damn time." Markus scoffed. He brought his club down, the weapon flying rapidly to the girl's bandaged skull. But before he could hit here, an intense pain filled his hand. One of the darts was now sticking out of his palm. Immediately, he pulled it out, and let out a sigh of relief that it wasn't poisoned.

Taking advantage of her foe's distraction, Alanna swung her leg out, tripping the larger boy over. He fell to the floor, and rolled out of the way as Alanna drove a knife down towards him. Markus leapt to his feet, and ran towards the golden horn, trying to formulate some way to kill her. She was obviously better in hand to hand combat, and had crazy fast reflexes. So physical conflict wasn't going to work. But if he could outsmart her...

Markus threw himself at the Cornucopia, climbing the side as Alanna picked up her katana, and ran towards him. She swung at his calf, slicing it as Markus reached the top. This wasn't good; that wound felt far too deep, and he was beginning to tire. But he forced himself to move as the younger tribute reached the top of the golden horn. They both slowly edged towards the top of the mouth; the highest point. Markus looked down. The Cornucopia seemed higher than yesterday, and if he fell off incorrectly, game over. Alanna swung at him, and Markus nimbly footed around the far side. If he could just knock her off, then he would have enough time to get out of there. She rushed him, and Markus swung his club at her chest, the sheer force sending her flying. Right off the edge of the Cornucopia. Markus already knew that this wouldn't kill her, but it would buy him some time. With surprising speed, he followed the downward curve to the lowest point of the Cornucopia, and sprinted away from the field as Alanna stood up once more.

"So much for ending it where it started."

Markus wove through the burned tree line, deliberately making confusing and spontaneous direction changes to throw her off. But Alanna simply followed every motion to the letter. He looked back to see one of Alanna's throwing knives flying towards him. He ducked, and the bladed weapon stuck itself in a tree. The zombie tribute stopped following him for a moment to pick up her throwing knife, and Markus took advantage of the situation, shooting through the treeline, continually looking behind him. Unfortunately, because he was so concerned about the undead girl from District 6, he failed to notice the steep drop, and tumbled down the edge of the dried up lake. Markus collapsed in a heap on the floor, and instantly leapt back up, thankful that she hadn't got to him yet. He pulled out the last of his water, and swallowed the cool liquid in one gulp. He looked up, and saw Alanna standing there, next to a trail of a green oozing fluid. The acid. Markus quickly looked around at his surroundings, and began to chuckle at the irony of the situation. This was the place they had briefly worked together to stay alive, and where both of Markus' allies bit the dust. How fitting it would be for the drained lake to be the final stage for this showdown.

Alanna leapt down from the top of the crater, and landed at the bottom perfectly on her feet, her glazed over eyes staring at Markus. Markus pulled out his club, and ran at her as she charged with her katana. Both tributes made contact with one another at exactly the same time, their weapons digging into each other's flesh. Markus stifled a cry of pain as the blade sliced deeply into his shoulder, the blood flowing down his bare arm like a sickening waterfall. His club was embedded deeply in Alanna's torso, but nothing was happening. A wave of excruciating agony pulsated throughout his arm, and he punched the undead tribute right in the pale face, knocking her to the floor. His left arm was now entirely red from the amount of blood that flowed from it, the crimson fluid dripping to the floor. This needed to end pretty fast if he wanted to live.

Alanna leapt back up, and tackled Markus, her surprising amount of power catching the larger tribute off guard. He fell to the floor, his club flying out of his hand. Alanna pulled out her two throwing knives, and sank them into Markus' hands, pinning him to the floor with them. A small amount of blood pooled out of the wounds, and Markus found himself stuck. He was weaponless and completely at this girl's mercy. She lifted her katana, and dragged it down Markus' good arm, splitting the flesh in half, cutting right to the bone. Markus didn't retaliate; he wasn't going to give them the satisfaction. Alanna then struck her weapon down on Markus' kneecap, nearly severing the lower portion of his leg. The pain was agonising, and Markus threw up what little food he had eaten today. The blade left his leg, and Alanna looked at him, her dead eyes draining the life from his own brilliant green ones.

Alanna brought her katana down on Markus' chest, tearing his shirt open, revealing the expanse of flesh that held so many organs. Alanna dragged her katana down the middle of his exposed torso, coating it with a thick layer of blood. She sliced open his abdominal area, and pulled out a long bloody string of flesh. She was holding his intestines in her hands. She pulled harder, causing Markus to black out momentarily. When he regained vision, Alanna had sliced a large chunk of his intestines off, and was wearing it like a scarf. He vomited once more, nearly choking on the bloody bile. Noticing this, Alanna shoved her tiny hand into his mouth, and pulled out his tongue. She sliced it clean off, and shoved it back into his mouth, and pressed his nostrils together, forcing him to swallow. As soon as it happened, Markus nearly vomited again as he realised that he had eaten his own tongue, and didn't resist for long, the slimy piece of flesh shooting out of his mouth onto his chest.

Markus felt extremely light headed; he wouldn't last much longer. Alanna sliced once more, pulling out his stomach, squeezing the fluids out of it onto his chest, burning the skin. Markus' breathing became shallower, and Alanna sliced open his chest, breaking his ribcage as she stabbed one of his lungs. But then she saw the grand prize; the heart. She reached in, and squeezed the major organ with her powerful hand, blood beginning to spurt out. Markus' eyes widened, and Alanna squeezed harder, the organ bursting, before leaping off the dying tribute. She watched with delight as Markus' eyes lost the spark of life, and he fell back, his body growing limp. After a few seconds, blood flowed out of his mouth and nose, coating his face, and Markus Lucian left the realm of the living.

BOOM

Alanna Pyre:

Alanna's vision came back into focus; having no idea how she got here. The last thing she remembered was slamming open a door, seeing Markus, and nothing else. She looked down. Her colourless skin was coated in warm blood. Was it her blood? She suddenly noticed a trail of the red liquid leading to a bloodied hunk of flesh; a person.

Alanna approached the body carefully, and found the head. She wiped the blood from their face, and saw Markus' dead eyes staring at her. Did she do this? Alanna noticed that his chest was sliced open, blood coating his deflated lungs, the body fluid slowly rising as it pulsed out from a burst artery. This was horrifying, and judging from the state of her, she had caused this. It was as if her body went into auto pilot upon seeing the boy from 5.

But her disgusted thoughts soon vanished as another thought hit her. Markus was dead, making her the last tribute standing. She had won! And as if on cue, a loud melodic sound exploded throughout the arena, causing the ground to vibrate with the sheer volume. It was an extremely happy melody, that screamed victory. A crackle of static sounded out, and the exasperated voice of the head Gamemaker cried out.

"Ladies and gentlemen, after a truly unforgettable battle, we are proud to announce the victor of the 100th annual Hunger Games. Congratulations to Alanna Pyre of District Six for winning the fourth Quarter Quell!" A wide grin crossed Alanna's bloody face, and the Gamemaker started speaking again. "So what do you say? Can we get a big round of applause for Alanna here for such a stunning victory?" As soon as the words left his mouth, a loud chorus of screaming and cheering replaced all other sounds. Seemed the Capitol was happy with their new victor.

Amidst the chaos, a single massive hovercraft appeared over the drained lake, a beam of light surrounding Alanna. She began to be pulled upwards, and into the flying vehicle. She reached the top of the beam, and a pair of gloved hands pulled her in. Alanna was met with a crowd of Capitol surgeons, all wearing protective suits. One pulled out a bright vial, and jabbed it into Alanna's hand. A strange warmth flowed through her body as the fluid coursed through her body. It passed through her arm, and the stab wound suddenly erupted in pain. But Alanna smiled; she could feel again. It reached her head, and everything became warm and fuzzy, and Alanna fell into unconsciousness as the medical team brought her into the operating theatre, to restore her to her formal self.

From deep within the medicine induced slumber, a single thought entered Alanna's now clear head; the same powerful thought that kept her going throughout the past two weeks.

_I'm going home!_


	15. Chapter 15

Alanna Pyre:

Warmth. That was the first sensation that Alanna perceived. Followed by light, and the soft beeping of a hospital monitor. Her dulled blue eyes fluttered open, and she absorbed her surroundings. She was in a small, white room, laying on a sterile hospital bed, wearing some sort of wristband that hooked her up to a machine that pulsed occasionally. She pulled the covers off, and looked at her other arm, and gasped in surprise at its condition. It was perfect, any trace of injury or dirt gone. She lifted her hospital gown, and found that the puncture wounds from the club had vanished from her torso. Gingerly, she touched her head, and found that the bandages had gone, and her sandy blonde hair had returned to its normal length. The Capitol really did work wonders when it came to making people look as good as new.

The door at the other side of the room opened, and Alanna's mentor, Sandria, cautiously walked in, holding a tray of food.

"How are you feeling, Alanna?" She asked softly as she set the meal on the young girl's lap. It was a roll of bread, a bowl of soup and a glass of water.

"To be honest, I'm actually overjoyed that I can feel anything." Alanna said between mouthfuls of the bread. It was delicious and fresh; her stomach welcoming the food.

"That's excellent. You've made a full recovery then." Sandria said warmly. "And I take it you're well enough to get up? After all, today is the victor crowning ceremony." Alanna's mouth opened ever so slightly as she heard the words. She was a victor; a winner of the Hunger Games; a survivor. And after today, she'd be free of the Capitol and the Games.

"I have to go prepare my things to leave now; your outfit is on the bed." Sandria smiled sweetly, and left.

The largest of smiles exploded onto Alanna's face, and she pulled the wristband off her arm, leaping out of the bed. She had won. She had won! She was going to go home, to see her family once more. And Zach... Alanna threw the gown off, and leapt into the simple outfit left behind. She finished the meal, and swung open the door of her room, walking down the luxurious hallway. The walls were covered in a thick red carpet that seemed to radiate warmth, and was soft to touch. Alanna ran her hands through the fabric, relishing the comforting feeling it gave off. She reached the other end of the hallway, and pushed open the golden doors, finding herself in a living room, with several large sofas, and a TV with a countdown. Alanna looked closer, and saw that there was a message under the timer.

_TIME UNTIL VICTOR'S CEREMONY:_

_5 HOURS, 12 MINUTES, 49 SECONDS_

Five hours until the ceremony, and the final interview with Caesar Flickerman II. Which meant only eight hours left in the Capitol. Suddenly, the doors to the room burst open, and Alanna was met with a death hug by her stylist, Celesta.

"I'm so happy for you, Alanna! After all, this is the first Quarter Quell in fifty years that wasn't won by District 12, and the first one by anyone under sixteen!"

"Thanks." Alanna responded, her throat suddenly feeling dry.

"Now, we have the crowning ceremony in a few hours, so I'm actually here to take you to the make over centre." Of course. Even as a victor, Alanna had to go through the horrific ordeal of being coated in makeup and revolting outfits. "And I just _know_ you'll love the theme we've gone for!"

"Can't wait." Alanna said dryly. Even though she had already figured out that satirical dialect was a wasted cause with the Capitol citizens, it still felt good to let it out. "But before we do, could you get me a glass of water?"

"Sure, sweetie." Celesta kissed Alanna's head, and teetered over to the water dispenser. She gave it a long, hard glare before pressing a button, causing a foam cup to pop out of the machine, landing under a pipe, which then began to release water, flowing into the cup, filling it until it overflowed, the water flowing everywhere. Just like the fountain water in the arena, which turned to blood, slowly filling the room with the foul liquid. Alanna shut her eyes as the flashback began to completely overwhelm her, the memories so strong.

"Oh, horsefeathers!" Celesta exclaimed, snapping Alanna out of her shocked state. "Sorry Alanna, but the machine's broken. I'll get an avox on this ASAP." She handed her the full cup, shaking her head. "Sorry that it's so full, but it's the best I can do."

"It's fine, really." Alanna took small sips from the cup, lowering the volume of water until nothing remained. She placed it on the side, and Celesta took her hand.

"Come on, it's time to prepare you for the interview."

Alanna was lead down a white sterile hallway, looking like the room she had woken up in, the scent of disinfectant very powerful, almost overwhelming, even. They reached the end of the hall, and Celesta began to punch a combination of numbers on the security pad on the wall to their left. The silver wall in front of them parted, revealing Alanna's prep team, who instantly flocked to her.

"Oh, Alanna! I always knew you would come back!"

"I absolutely _loved _the way that you handled yourself when they said that you had to face an opponent against your will!" Alanna lost herself in thought as her prep team trilled about what they did during the Games; where they were, how many parties they attended, whilst they scrubbed her down with a warm foamy liquid that Alanna felt as if she was going to melt into it. After about two hours of repeated rinsing and mindless gossip about pointless matters.

"And then, she went as far as saying that tropical décor wasn't in this season! And we all know that's a lie; last weeks episode of Life as a President _clearly_ showed that the President himself had palm trees growing in his garden! The nerve of some people!" Alanna rolled her eyes as the disgruntled purple woman let out her complaints. The Capitol was so ridiculous; only they could spend half an hour arguing whether or not palm trees were in at the moment. Then a thought occured to her; if she was born in the multicoloured freak circus that governed Panem, would she also get caught up in heated arguments about the colour of someone's hairline? No, Alanna was never one to follow the crowd. She would have ignored the petty debates. But would she have, really?

A cold jet of water cascaded down Alanna's back, bringing her to reality once more.

"And, done! You're now ready to see Celesta!" One of them piped as the three of them left the room, Celesta walking in straight after, holding a package.

"Your outfit." She said before the young girl could even open her mouth. Alanna stood out of the bath tub that she was in, and dried her feet on the rug below.

"Now, close your eyes." Alanna did as instructed as Celesta lifted her arms, the cool fabric sliding down her body. She then felt Celesta putting her feet into a pair of soft shoes, and patting her face with a make up brush.

"Open your eyes." Alanna opened her eyes, and took in her outfit. She was wearing a long, flowing white dress that shimmered in the light, the sleeves flowing outwards like wings. She was also wearing a shining pair of white pumps, but what really caught her attention was her face. It was coated in a fine powder that blended with her skin tone, but with little gold flakes here and there. It made her face look like it was bathed in a holy light.

"We decided on making you an angel. After all, you did transcend from the most unholy of depths, and managed to attain the ultimate reward. And your glowing face represents immortality; you have avoided death itself."

Alanna looked at herself, and found that she did indeed look like an angel from one of the books she used to read as a child. But those books had always said that people became angels when they died after doing good things all their life. But what Alanna had done, killing two people, was anything but pure and good.

"It's time for the interviews." Celesta said warmly as she guided the young victor to an elevator. Alanna stepped inside, and the doors shut behind her, leaving her alone in the elevator. Alanna stood motionless as the elevator rose, anxiety suddenly building up. This was the exact same type of elevator that carried her into the arena. Claustrophobia threatened to take over as the platform rose into the open space of the interview hall, Caesar Flickerman II waving at Alanna as she came into view of the cameras.

"And here she is, the girl herself! Ladies and gentlemen, give a warm welcome to the victor of the one hundredth annual Hunger Games, and the first Quarter Quell! Alanna Pyre of District 6!" Caesar flashed Alanna a smile, and the crowd exploded in joy. "Take a seat!" Cautiously, Alanna crossed the gleaming stage, and sat on the interview chair, her small body comfortably fitting into the fabric on the seat.

"So, Alanna, how does it feel to be the youngest ever victor of a Quarter Quell?" Caesar asked with enthusiasm.

"Well," Alanna said slowly, thinking of what to say, "I'm still having a hard time getting the reality to sink in." In response, Caesar ruffled her hair, and smiled brightly at her, his golden hair shimmering in the spotlight.

"I bet you are. I know I would be if _I _ever won the Hunger Games!" Yeah, as if you could last three seconds in the arena, Alanna thought as the crowd began cheering her name loudly. "Now, for the first question: What made you decide to join that massive alliance?"

"To be honest, after seeing the way Caleb nearly died during training, I did it more or less to protect myself from the psychotic killers." Alanna replied calmly, and Caesar nodded, before pulling out another question card.

"Excellent, which brings us on to our next question: During day five, what convinced you to help Markus with the super Muttation?" Caesar asked, his eyes glowing with curiosity.

"With that one, Caesar, it was obvious; help him, or die." Alanna responded flatly, eliciting a roar of laughter from the audience. The interview continued, with Caesar asking Alanna various questions on her opinions about the other tributes, until he got to the last question.

"And for the final question: Why was it that you decided to give Markus Lucian the bloody end that he received so violently?" Alanna tensed up. The corpse, torn open, blood everywhere...

She covered her face with her hands, feeling sickened. So she _had_ done it. She had brutally slaughtered him. It was disgusting. But she swallowed her disgust, and answered the upsetting question.

"I honestly don't know Caesar; one minute I'm looking at him; the next, I'm looking at his body through a red haze." The words flew out of Alanna's mouth with incredible speed, and she looked away as soon as she had said it.

"A shame you don't know," Caesar began, motioning to a cameraman, "But you'll get to see all the action again! Roll the recap!" _Oh dear god, no..._ Alanna thought as a large screen descended, the anthem blaring out.

The film cut to President Tisiphone Snow, grand daughter of Coriolanus Snow, giving the Quell announcement, then to the reapings. All the tributes looked so alive. But now they were all dead; two of them at the hands of Alanna Pyre. The film cut to the chariot parades, and the hideous outfits the tributes had to wear. She saw the way Caleb and herself held hands, waving to the crowds. A twang of guilt coursed through her. But he had to die in order for her to live. But the guilt was still eating away at her. Alanna looked back to the screen, as it showed the training scores. But what was coming next was what bothered her the most.

The airy background music became an intense drum beat, as it showed the twenty four tributes all standing on their plates, eyeing up the Cornucopia. Then it zoomed on the girl from 3, who was sobbing hysterically, as she stepped off her plate, leaving the Games before they began. The gong sounded, and all hell broke loose as the tributes scrambled to grab weapons and supplies. The boy from 7 wrestled with the girl from 1 over a dark bag, before both of them were impaled by the boy from 12, who shoved two spears into the battling tributes. He grabbed the dark bag, and nearly made it out of the bloodbath, but ran into the boy from 2. They both engaged in a brief battle, before the boy from 2 was shot by the girl from 11. She fired another arrow, this time catching the boy from 12, killing him. She ran to retrieve his bag, but the boy from 4 pierced her back with a trident. In retaliation, she fired an arrow into his heart, and both tributes collapsed to the floor, dying. It then cut to the pair from 8 as they embraced, then showed the boy from 10 desperately hiding, and the girl from 5 running quickly, clutching her whip for dear life.

The film then showed Alanna and Caleb escaping into the tents, and April, Caera and Aluma meeting up, then the the psychotic boy from 5 crawling into the Cornucopia. It then showed the girl from 10 running to the small housing area, and the boy from 1 entering a large building.

The cameras cut to the boy from 3 as he ran from a screaming woman in the early morning night, unfortunately not being able to outrun her, her razor sharp claws making quick work of him. It then showed both the boy from 1 and the girl from 10 as they also outran undead Mutts, both of them getting injured in the process. Then it showed Caera and April fending off the zombies whilst Aluma gathered their things, and they ran. The film then cut to Caleb and herself as they leapt into the Ferris wheel, then focused on the tiring girl from 2 as she was showered in the corrosive vomit from one of the zombies, melting into nothingness. Alanna resisted the urge to gag as the dissolving mess began to steam. Thank goodness she had decided to escape when she did. And finally, the cameras focused on the boy from 5 as he darted into the treeline of the lake, meeting up with one of his allies.

The film cut to the next day, and the boys from 9 and 11 as they both filled their canteens from the same fountain, filling their stomachs with the toxic water. Then, without warning, a knife stuck through the boy from 11's back, coming out through his stomach. Blood poured from his mouth, and he sank to the floor, a clown Muttation brutally clawing at the boy from 9. He managed to use his knife to kill it, but stumbled into another one, the rusty knife decapitating him. It then showed the others fighting their Mutts, and Alanna and Caleb meeting up with their alliance, and the Cold Killer alliance making quick work of their clowns. Meanwhile, the girl from 4 was running, two clowns on her tail. She climbed a building, desperately using her knife to fend them off, but lost her balance, falling into the clutches of the clowns. Alanna shut her eyes as the girl's screams filled the interview hall.

The next few days were uneventful; just more Mutt killing and an alliance forming between the girl from 5 and the boy from 10. It then cut to the morning of the feast, and Alanna gulped in anticipation of the bloody day ahead.

First, it showed the Cold killers looking quizically at the boxes. After several minutes, the girl from 10 sighed, and lowered her head as the boy from 5 swung his club at her head, sending her flying into the Cornucopia. Their chest opened, and the remaining two members grabbed their packs, and disbanded. Next up came Alanna's alliance, and the pair from 8. April, Caleb and Caera fought them off whilst Alanna and Aluma tried to open their crate. They remained this way until the boy from 8 shoved his trident into Caleb, the boy falling to the floor, clutching his wound. A single tear escaped Alanna's eye as she watched her district partner slowly perish on screen. Taking mercy, Caera swiped her scythe across Caleb's throat, ending his suffering. They then chased away District 8's tributes, and their chest opened, the Anti-Careers taking their supplies, then leaving. But the girl from 5 and the boy from 10 arrived on the scene just as they were leaving, and the girl from 5 struck at Caera with her whip, knocking her scythe to the floor. She charged at them, grabbing her weapon, but not managing to land any hits. The other tributes retreated into the treeline as Caera caught her breath, not noticing the girl from 10 get up. She slammed the girl from 7 to the floor, tearing her chest apart with her teeth, before leaving the bloodied mess on the floor still alive, ambling away from the Cornucopia. The girl from 5 and the boy from 10 returned, and finished the job, ending Caera's life, opening the third chest. The crowd cheered at the brutal deaths, whilst Alanna could feel her stomach flipping. How could they enjoy this so much? Taking away the fact it was innocent kids killing one another, all that gore was enough to induce vomiting for a week.

The next day brought the forced killings, starting off with the undead girl from 10 wandering towards the boy from 1, as per instructions. She eventually found him, immediately overpowering him, feasting on his major organs. Alanna felt the bile rising in her throat; she wouldn't be able to take much more of this. It then cut to the battle between Markus from 5 and Zayn from 8. Markus fired taunt after taunt at Zayn, until he played dead, lowering Zayn's guard, then fired a crossbow bolt at point blank into the boy from 8's chest, sending him flying into a tent, instantly killing him. Next on the list was the first part of the battle between Alanna and Aluma, complete with the deluded Aluma and the endless stream of knives and darts. Before getting to Aluma's death, it cut to the boy from 10 and the girl from 5, who were both hugging and crying. The younger boy then pulled out his mace, and bludgeoned his older ally to death, collapsing in a fit of sobs afterwards. The film then cut back to Alanna as Nova's cannon disturbed her from her power nap. She leapt from her tree, and faced off with Aluma, eventually overpowering the crazed girl, knocking her into the false pool ending her life. Another stab of guilt attacked Alanna; why was she so remorseful? Aluma wasn't hesitating to kill her, or was she?

_"I thought we were friends!"_ The words came back to Alanna as she let out a choked sob, unheard under the dramatic music of the Games. She had killed Aluma, and now felt awful for it. Tears silently flowed down her face, the Capitol oblivious as their eyes were glued to the face off between April and Sarah, Sarah disembowelling the young girl from 12. It had finally hit Alanna; all the killing and deaths. She couldn't control the waves of sobbing as Markus attacked the scarecrow Mutt on the screen, throwing the head in the toilet. Alanna choked back her tears, and returned her attention to the Games as she watched Tavish from 10 get devoured by rats in his sleep. He was only a child... He didn't deserve to die like that. None of them did. Alanna watched as the remaining three tributes battled the flaming Mutts and the undead tributes, Alanna sustaining major damage that would actually be the key to her victory. Markus beat the corroding remains of Emily to a pulp, and Sarah burned Gryffon to shreds, wiping out the undead tributes from the arena. They had been reduced to nothing but Muttations, designed to challenge the surviving tributes. They probably had friends and family back home that had to watch them meet those horrific fates. This was sick; it was wrong. It was bad enough they had to die, but turning them into Mutts was going overboard.

Alanna redirected her attention to the Games as she watched herself leap from the Ferris wheel, hitting the floor. It was extremely surreal watching herself die, and then get immediately picked up by the hovercraft after Markus looted her items.

It was the final two now, and Alanna watched as Markus and Sarah battled it out over the course of the day, arrows flying everywhere, both dealing major blows to one another. The battle moved swiftly towards the Cornucopia, where both tributes were met with a hideous looking wolf Muttation, that fired countless spines at Sarah, turning her into a living pin cushion. She managed to crawl into the mouth of the golden horn, and the wolf picked up on Markus' presense. Alanna watched Markus fire a crossbow bolt at the Mutt, knocking it to the floor, the creature writing in pain as the life leeched from its body, similar to Caleb. Alanna tried desperately to block out thoughts of her district partner as Markus bludgeoned the Mutt's head into oblivion, leaving nothing above the neck. Sarah then began to climb the Cornucopia, desperately trying to reach the free item in the chest, but Markus caught her in the act, and fired at her, knocking her to the floor. She leapt to her feet, and charged at the psychotic boy, and the two engaged in a gruelling showdown, Sarah eventually ending on top of Markus, choking him as she talked to something that was clearly not there at all. But just before he lost the spark of life, Markus jabbed something into Sarah; a poisoned dart. The girl writed in agony as spasms overtook her, and she fell back, lifeless. Markus had done exactly as Alanna was planning to do with her darts if she was in that situation. Markus then grabbed a healing potion, and retreated to a small housing area for the evening.

Instead of cutting to the next day, the Games switched to an interview with the head Gamemaker as a medical team worked on something in the background; Alanna. The interview ended, and it cut to the Cornucopia, the early morning's rays reflecting off the horn. A hovercraft materialised above the area, and gently deposited a very pale Alanna onto the Cornucopia, before vanishing once more. Alanna watched, mesmorised as her undead self wasted no time in tracking Markus, grabbing a katana as she broke down several doors, hunting the crazed boy from District 5 down. What happened next horrified Alanna entirely.

Her eyes misted over, and she began to relentlessly stab Markus, nothing stopping her. She chased him out of the housing area, and towards a barn, where she ended up stabbing him once more. Markus then lead the chase towards the Cornucopia, and the two faced off, mimicking the battle between Markus and Sarah that had occured twenty four hours previous, but Alanna was overpowering Markus, causing the massive brute to flee the scene, heading to the lake where they worked together to kill the super Muttation. Another battle played out, until Alanna tackled Markus to the floor. The young victor watched in horror as she tore open Markus' torso, pulling his intestines out, and wearing them like a scarf. A fashion accessory made of human flesh. Alanna could feel herself on the verge of blacking out, but she kept it together as she watched the next part of the torture session. She pulled out Markus' tongue, forcing him to eat it, before he spewed it back out. This was repulsive and inhumane; all caused by the Capitol. Alanna felt sick, both physically and internally at the Capitol for what they had made her do. Or did they? Perhaps this monster was lurking inside Alanna all along, and it just took becoming a zombie to coax out of her. No, she told herself, that's stupid. No person, not even Markus, would be that gruesome on their own accord.

Alanna looked back at the screen as she saw herself squeeze Markus heart, bursting the organ, instantly killing him. No, she refused to accept that she had done that. Alanna watched as she saw the mist lift from her eyes, and saw as she noticed the remains of Markus Lucian, eyeing them with extreme curiosity. The victory tune played, and she was announced as victor, the hovercraft lifting her into the large vehicle, and the video ended.

"Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Alanna Pyre: The girl who defied death itself!" The crowd exploded in a bout of sheer joy as the anthem sounded out, everyone standing as President Tisiphone Snow herself appeared, holding a silver crown with the number 100 etched into it. She approached Alanna, and placed the crown on the small girl's head, flashing her a smile. But the smile was completely false; almost with a malicious undertone.

"Congratulations to Alanna Pyre from District 6 for acheiving the astounding victory of winning the one hundredth Hunger Games, and the fourth Quarter Quell!" Snow announced, and the crowd erupted once more, before Sandria walked on stage, and guided Alanna backstage, where Celesta was waiting.

"Well, that's that," Celesta began, wiping a tear from her eye, "The train is ready outside to take you home, so I guess this is goodbye."

"I guess." Alanna replied as her stylist crushed her in a death hug. Celesta finally let go, and Sandria took Alanna into the elevator, going down. It opened on the ground floor of the train station, and the two victors made their way across the golden platform to the train, stepping on board. They walked into the dining cart, and the train pulled off from the station, slowly maneuvering through the cheering crowds in the streets, the evening sun giving everything a golden sheen to it.

"So," Sandria began, "What now?"

"What do you mean?" Alanna replied as she looked out of the window at the screaming Capitol citizens, "I've won the Hunger Games, what else is there to do?"

"Well, you have your family for starters; what will you do with them?" The mention of her family sent a smile bursting onto Alanna's face.

"My family... Well, I'll definitely get help for my parents' drug addiction. Then my brother, Zach... I think I'll spend every single day with him forever."

"Seems you're close to your brother." Sandria said softly.

"You wouldn't know the half of it." Alanna said brightly, looking out of the window as they drove through the mountainous tunnel, out of the Capitol. The train sped up, the magnificent city slowly becoming smaller and more distant, until it was nothing but a shining blip in the distance.

Alanna stood out of her seat, and crossed the room, pouring herself a steaming mug of hot chocolate. The beverage was so sweet and energising as it passed her lips. Still holding the mug, Alanna began to walk towards the back of the train, until Sandria noticed.

"Where are you going?" She asked quizically.

"I just need a moment to think, is all." Alanna replied softly, and turned, walking down the hallway. She pushed open the first door, and walked through the hallway, bedrooms lining the cart. Caleb had slept in one of them. Alanna opened the door to the room Caleb had slept in, and took in the sight before her. The bed was still unmade, Caleb's reaping outfit strewn across the floor. It was chilling to see, making Alanna feel like she was intruding on something private and sacred. The train passed a few trees, and the evening sun reflected off of something in the room; a picture frame. Cautiously, as if not to disturb the scene, Alanna walked over to the picture, and picked it up, before leaving the room, shutting the door.

Alanna walked down the plush hallway, to the door at the back of the train, opening it. She stepped outside, and a cool breeze whipped around her hair and clothes. The fresh air was very welcoming, and Alanna sat down on the large bench, her feet dangling over the edge. She clutched the picture frame close, contempt with just holding it, but there was a nagging urge to see what made this photo so precious to her late district partner. Giving in to the temptation, Alanna flipped over the picture frame, and took in the image. Tears began to form in the corner of Alanna's eyes as the went over the details of the picture.

In the middle of the photo was Caleb, smiling, surrounded by two older males that looked very similar to him; his brothers, Alanna guessed. And just in front of Caleb was a small girl, that looked no older than Alanna herself, and very similar in appearance. The two appeared to be extremely close, echoing Alanna's relationship with Zach. Alanna let out a choked sob as she realised that that young girl would never see her older brother again. She felt awful for depriving a family of such a loved member. All because the Capitol wanted to make sure that the districts wouldn't rebel. It was sick, and wrong. If anything, the Hunger Games actually fuelled the districts' hatred for the Capitol, but obviously their simple brains couldn't comprehend that fighting fire with fire was the most ineffective method in the history of subdueing rebellious populations. The tears were flowing down Alanna's face as she stared into the innocent eyes of the young girl in the picture frame. She was old enough to be reaped, yes, but she still carried an air of naivety about her. And now she had lost her big brother. Alanna took a sip of the warm chocolate drink, and watched as the train passed through a wooded area in the dimnishing sunlight, strange shadows being cast from the dancing limbs of the trees, the brief whisper of bird song distinguishable in the howling wind that whipped through the branches. Then, through the forest, Alanna caught the glimpse of an electrified fence. They were obviously passing by a district; one that had lost both tributes.

A sudden strong gust of wind slammed into the trees, causing the porch that Alanna was sitting on to be covered in pine needles. It was then that she recognised the district they were passing by; District 7. Caera... The thought of her late ally once again caused Alanna to well up. Out of all of her allies, Caera's death had been the most gruesome, perhaps the second worst death in the Games. She had a fighting chance, fending off four powerful tributes on her own, not even expecting the undead girl from 10 to try and eat her. But that was how the Capitol loved to play this; killing tributes in unexpected manners, it added to the entertainment value. Alanna didn't doubt that Emily would have tried to kill Caera, but not in that manner. That was beyond human capability; not even Markus, the most twisted tribute out there, would have resorted to _eating_ his foes. It was crossing some line that defined whether or not you were human, and the Capitol had forced both Emily and Gryffon to cross that line, and Alanna, to an extent. At least she didn't crave eating Markus' internal organs. The memories of the recaps caused Alanna's stomach to prepare to throw her hot chocolate back up. She shuddered, and swallowed the rising bile, focusing on the fading light of District 7 as it vanished beyond the horizon. She wondered if the families of Caera and her district partner were mourning the fallen tributes. At least Alanna didn't have the guilt of knowing that she murdered them; those honours went to Nova and Ovid.

The heat began to fade from the air, and Alanna stood up, shivering slightly, from both the cold and the immense guilt. She walked back inside the train, shutting the door, finishing her hot chocolate, wiping the pine needles off of her dress. Fatigue suddenly overcame her, and Alanna retreated to her room, placing the photo on her dresser, and crawled into bed, accepting the welcomed sleep.

But her sleep was anything but peaceful. Alanna's subconscious brought her outside a brightly coloured building, the sun giving off a soft glow, warming the air pleasantly. Alanna looked around, and saw a figure emerging from the trees that surrounded the area.

"Hey." It was April, still clutching her bow. She walked towards Alanna, and wrapped her in a tight embrace. "I'm so glad you won, even if you killed us all." The pleasant feeling left immediately, and Alanna pulled herself off of April as the girl from District 12's eyes glazed over, and a massive gash appeared in her stomach, blood pouring freely as she melted into the ground, disappearing.

_**BOOM**_

A cannon sounded out, and Alanna ran from the spot where April had once stood, into the building. The inside of the building looked similar to the restaurant back home, and Caleb and Caera were sat there, each drinking a glass of fruit juice. Caleb smiled, exactly like in the picture frame, and waved at Alanna, motioning her to sit with them. She obliged, and joined the two as they drank their drinks.

"Isn't the weather marvellous today?" Caera said sweetly, taking a sip of her drink. "Everything's so full of life," Caera's eyes lost their light, and her face began to peel off slowly, blood pouring from her body.

"Everything, except me." Caera's voice was flat; dead. She melted into a pool of blood on her seat, staining the white fabric a deep red.

_**BOOM**_

Alanna cried out in horror at the remains of Caera, and looked at Caleb, who was oblivious to the fact his friend had just died in front of him.

"Caleb, didn't you see that?!" Alanna yelled, but Caleb continued to stare blankly into the distance.

"My family will soon join me." He finally said, and the colour of his drink went a deep red, his eyes becoming blank ovals on his face. Blood then gushed from his mouth, and Caleb collapsed into the table, melting away.

_**BOOM**_

Alanna ran out of the restaurant, screaming, trying to escape the horror. She ran into the woods, not stopping until she ran into a figure with bright red hair. Aluma turned to face her, still holding her knives.

"Alanna! It's you!" She embraced Alanna closely, smiling brightly, "Have you seen the others? We agreed to meet up in the woods." Aluma looked slightly into the distance, as if seeing something Alanna couldn't.

"Well, Aluma. The others... They... Um..." Words became sobs as Alanna tried to explain her allies' fates to Aluma, who looked at Alanna, somewhat confused.

"Alanna, why aren't you telling me?" Alanna looked up as Aluma's eyes lost their colour, and red tears began to drip from them, "I thought we were friends!" The words sliced right through Alanna as she watched Aluma convulse as a pool of blood formed around her.

"I thought we were friends Alanna, I really did!" Aluma was beginning to melt now; her legs becoming one with the blood. She looked up at Alanna, her face contorted in despair, tears of blood flowing down her face. This was too much. Alanna screamed, and ran from the melting mess that was Aluma, through the trees. Aluma's cries of pain could still be heard as Alanna ran down a hill, tripping on a tree root. She tumbled downwards, crashing at the bottom, now in a clearing. She stood up, and looked around, and gasped at what she saw.

Every last tribute from the arena was standing in a circle around Alanna; all of them pale and lifeless. Alanna could feel the panic rising, and her head began to spin as they chanted.

"You killed us. You killed us. You killed us. You killed us."

"Make it stop!" Alanna screamed, curling up in a ball as the chants intermingled with Aluma's screams, creating a hellish cacophony. Then, everything went silent, and a spiked club flew towards Alanna's head.

_**BOOM**_

Alanna's eyes shot open, grateful for the sunlight that was streaming in. She looked around, expecting to see her cabin full of corpses, but instead found the plush red carpet. She got out of bed, and walked into the shower, causing a stream of hot water to cascade down her back. Suddenly, a sharp scream cut through the air, and Alanna tensed up at the voice. It was high, but carried an air of maturity about it. The scream reminded her so much of Aluma. Alanna turned off the shower, and stepped out, wrapping herself in a large towel, embracing the protective feeling it gave off. It reminded her of that winter a few years ago. As Alanna dried off, the scream sounded out again.

"My dress has a tear in it! This is the worst _possible_ thing!" It was just Alanna's escort, to her relief. Aluma hadn't come back from the dead to haunt her. Yet. That would come after the victory tour; after she had come face to face with Aluma's family. Just another wonderful thing to look forward to as a victor. It seemed so hopeless to carry on living, and Alanna wondered if dying in the arena would be more preferable than the life she would have to live from now on. It reminded her of another time when she had lost all hope in life, and she had found hope back then, so perhaps this time wouldn't be so different.

A few years back, when her parents had first started taking drugs, losing their jobs, a terrible blizzard struck District 6, killing the power for the poorer section of the district, where the Pyre family lived. A few days into the horrendous conditions, their measly food supply ran out, and Alanna began to starve. Her parents were stuck elsewhere in the district, so she couldn't rely on anyone for help. After a week of living off virtually nothing, Alanna began to hear the whispers of hope. Apparently, there was a family in the western section of the district that gave away food to starving children. The idea sounded ridiculous, but at that point Alanna was willing to follow any lead if it meant food.

The following morning, Alanna left her house, and began the journey to this so called charitable family. She knew that if these people really existed, then they were being very stupid, as what they were doing was highly illegal. But if the rumours were true, then it was worth travelling halfway across the district. The snow was bitter and freezing as the white flakes whipped around the young girl's hair, but Alanna pressed on, her agonising stomach compelling her to continue onwards.

Eventually, Alanna found a boy, about the same age as her, carrying a loaf of bread. It's golden tinge, combined with the aromatic fragrance was enough to make Alanna's stomach protest in agony until the food was inside of it.

"Hey," She began, "Where'd you get the bread?" The boy looked at her for a moment, as if weighing up the sincerity of her tone, then smiled slightly, and pointed to a street.

"There're some people at the end of the street that give away free food. I got this loaf of bread from them." The boy looked around, and shoved the bread inside his jacket. "Well, I've got to go now, hope you get some food."

"Thanks." Alanna replied, and she watched the boy dart into the snowstorm, vanishing from her sight forever. Now fully aware that this family really did exist, she picked up her pace, and ran down the road, to the house at the far end of the street. She reached the door, and hesitated for a moment. What if that boy lied? What if they turned her in to the Peacekeepers for begging? No, Alanna could see the relief in his eyes as he took in the heavenly aroma of the warm loaf in his hands. He wouldn't lie. Gathering herself once more, Alanna knocked on the door, the cold air causing her to shiver.

After what seemed to be an eternity in Alanna's mind, the door opened, and a dark haired woman opened the door.

"Oh my. Dear, are you okay?" Her voice seemed to radiate warmth, and Alanna found herself on the verge of tears.

"I-I'm cold, and hungry. My parents have gone, and I'm starving." She barely choked out as the woman picked her up, comforting her.

"There, there. We'll get you nice and cozy." She carried Alanna through the warm house, and into the living room. Alanna was placed on a large sofa, next to a boy that looked about three years older than her.

"Ollie, get the oven fired up. We have to help this young lady here." The boy instantly stood up, and nodded.

"Alright," He turned to face Alanna, and smiled warmly. "I'll get you something warm to eat in just a moment. What's your name?"

"Alanna." Her voice was barely a whisper as the warmth of this boy and the heat from the house seemed to melt her into happiness.

"That's a wonderful name. My name's Oliver, but you can call me Ollie for short." Oliver left the room, and went into the kitchen. Oliver's mother pulled out a blanket, and wrapped it around the shivering girl.

"It's alright now, you're safe and warm."

The memory caused Alanna to smile. Back then was bad, too, and she managed to find happiness. Why should now be any different? Alanna pulled out a plain outfit, and slipped it on. She crossed her room, and grabbed the picture of Caleb, and left the bedroom, heading to the dining cart.

When she arrived, Sandria and her escort were already there, eating some fruit.

"Good morning, Alanna," Sandria said with a warmth that matched the family from all those years ago, "Sleep well?"

"No," Alanna mumbled as she grabbed an apple, sinking her teeth into it, "I had a horrible nightmare that all the dead tributes were yelling at me that I killed them all." She shivered slightly as she remembered Aluma's screams, and the way she melted. A stream of tears fell from her eyes, the clear fluid glistening with sorrow. Sandria walked over to Alanna, and embraced the young girl.

"Alanna, I'm so sorry to hear that, but it's a natural occurrence, especially for new victors. For the first few months, you'll have nightmares every night, with the dead tributes haunting you. But they can't hurt you; they're just your brain's way of coping with the traumatic experience of spending two weeks in hell." Sandria held Alanna closer for a moment, before letting go.

"Besides, you shouldn't be sad today. Since later this morning, we'll be arriving in District 6; home." All sorrow melted away at that moment as Alanna's mind raced with the thought of seeing her family once more. She would see Zach, hear his innocent giggles once more, and see her parents, even if they preferred their hallucinations to reality. Alanna was nearly bouncing off her seat as the familiar electric fence came into view outside of her window. The train slowed down as it passed through the barriers, and Alanna let out a squeal of delight as she set her eyes on District Six once more; the place she thought she'd never see again.

Suddenly, a loud noise registered to Alanna. At first, it was like a dull humming, but as the train approached the station, the mystery noise became more distinct. It was a crowd; a cheering crowd. The train turned a corner, and Alanna saw what looked like the entire district cheering and waving to the young victor as the train pulled to a stop.

"Well, this is it for me..." Alanna's escort began, suddenly emotional, but Alanna's mind was elsewhere at that moment, "I guess I won't see you again until this time next year; you'll have a different escort for the victory tour." She pulled into Alanna for a hug, and she awkwardly obliged.

"Thanks, and be careful. I don't want you escorting next year's tributes in several pieces, now do we?" Alanna said, the words sounding strained.

"I don't know; after your stunning victory they're thinking of promoting me to District One's escort! The most prestigious of all the positions! I'll of course be sure to say hello to you if I get the chance though."

"Thank you." Alanna said again, astounded at how this woman went from a snivelling wreck to a bubbly self centered woman in the matter of a second. Sandria pulled Alanna's hand, and the two victors watched as the train doors opened. The sound of the crowd intensified, and Alanna and Sandria stepped off the train, and walked down the steps to the road, where a car was waiting for them. They climbed inside, and the car sped off, past the cheering crowd, to the Victor's Village.

"Well, this is it." Sandria said as the golden fencing surrounding the village drew into sight, "Now beings your changed life."

"I know," Alanna replied, watching as the driver exchanged a brief word with the Peacekeeper on guard, and opened the gates, "I just hope that the nightmares don't last too much longer." The car slowed down, and stopped outside one of the mansions, and Sandria opened the door of the car, stepping out.

"Come on, your new home." Upon hearing these words, Alanna burst out of the car, and ran up the concrete path, passing by the fertile garden, and to the front doors. She pushed them open, and stepped inside. The house smelled clean, and new. Alanna turned to face Sandria, and hugged her.

"Thank you," She choked, welling up with a vast range of emotions once more, "Thank you so much for keeping me alive."

"Don't mention it," Sandria replied, glistening tears dripping off her wisened face, landing on Alanna's soft hair, becoming entwined with the blonde strands, causing the hair to shine ever so slightly, "I just didn't want you to die."

"But what about Caleb?" Alanna said suddenly, clenching the photo frame in her hands.

"Listen, Alanna, as harsh as this sounds, I knew Caleb would never make it out alive. But you, on the other hand, had enough drive, and passion, to just maybe pull through. And you did."

"So, all this time..." Alanna stared at the tear stained photo frame, "You knew Caleb wasn't going to survive? When did you figure this out?"

"Alanna, you won't like this, but as soon as I laid eyes on him. I knew that he would last a week tops. I'm sorry if I'm coming across as a harsh person, but after mentoring enough tributes, you tend to know when certain ones have no chance of making it back, and Caleb, unfortunately, fit that category to a T."

"Oh..." Was all Alanna could say, before a wave of sobs wracked her tiny frame as she once again was hit with the reality that Caleb had died.

"Alanna, don't cry. It's bad for your health to dwell on the past's negativity. Instead, focus on the hope that the future will be better; it's how I've been coping."

"Al-Alright." Alanna stuttered as she walked further inside her new home. "I'll guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Of course; we are neighbours now, after all." Alanna smiled softly, and ran inside her house, eager to explore. She ran upstairs, and opened a door that had her name engraved on it.

The bedroom was massive, with a huge bed, lined with velvet sheets, and a large mahogany dresser. Alanna walked over to it, and placed the picture of Caleb on the dresser, facing the bed. There. Now she'd never forget the wonderful person that had been her district partner.

Suddenly, a figure moved near the doorway, and Alanna cried out in response as the tiny dark haired toddler wrapped his arms around her leg.

"Lanny!"

And in that moment, all the sorrow and despair in Alanna's life seemed to vanish as she held her baby brother close, cherishing every second that Zach clung to her leg. She was filled with a joy like no other as she kissed the top of his head. Maybe Sandria was right; perhaps the future would hold brighter things. And with the penultimate source of joy in her life right next to her, perhaps the nightmares would not be so bad that night.


End file.
